XP Antivirus 2008 Removal Instructions (XP Antivirus 2008)

Brandon
#1. April 1st, 2008, at 2:06 PM.

how do i delete xp anti virus 08 from my computer?

Marza
#2. April 8th, 2008, at 11:54 PM.

Srs: Me sent a warning that my PC was with 116 viruses and so I install the XP anti virus and eliminating, wanted to charge me $ many, it is in previno TERRORISM: beware! It is an anti-marketing, has read several comments about what you are doing to SELL.
BY PROCESS may be that, now I have as an anti-customer and make more references to you and with great anger.
Descontentado and furious despeço me.

Gerardo
#3. April 9th, 2008, at 6:07 PM.

te agrdezco la informacion ,que con las instrucciones esta todo muy claro.
pude hacer la desistalacion con exito.
gracias

Rich
#4. April 25th, 2008, at 3:45 PM.

I’ve never been so foolish… They make it look like the XP logo.
Pure Piracy!!!

ira
#5. April 28th, 2008, at 2:14 PM.

I have to tell people not to deal with this company. i paid $49.95 for xp anti virus they throw in some kind of file cleaner and added $20 to make my new total to $69.95 . i receive the file cleaner, i never receive xp anti virus. it is virtually impossible to get in touch with tech help. they disconnect you when you get down to number 2 and they ask you for your order number. i did get in touch with billing the woman (i think they are just a billing service) said she would deduct the $20 and she would send information by way of e-mail which i never received. i highly suggest that you stay away from this company. this way you won”t loss any money.

Amber
#6. April 30th, 2008, at 8:17 PM.

This is ridiculous. I can not believe I fell for this!!!! How in the world do you get in touch with these people???

lokesh
#7. May 5th, 2008, at 8:15 AM.

thanks, very much i did it finally

John Kovich
#8. May 9th, 2008, at 9:25 AM.

I fell for this also but I got rid of the pop up by going to SYSTEM RESTORE and backdated my computer to a date before the pop up appeared. It worked for me.

Rock
#9. May 12th, 2008, at 9:03 PM.

I tried removing all the files but for some reason, I could remove every single thing I had from the lists above but I was never able to get rid of wininet.dll in system32 shlwapi.dll in system32 also. Any idea why?

oily
#10. May 13th, 2008, at 6:28 PM.

I have never been so mad! I was online and all of a sudden this program was loading on my computer! It kept telling me that I had terriable issues. I clicked on my Norton and scanned and it came up as no issues. BUT, I can not get this thing off my computer. Folks do not buy this thing. I did not buy this, it was loading up and I could not stop IT……

a.m.
#11. May 14th, 2008, at 10:48 PM.

ok i am to the point where it wont let me open my task manager…it tells me it has been disabled by the administrator…yet this is the administrative account…any help?

J DONAGHY
#12. May 16th, 2008, at 3:05 PM.

Hi Ihave just got rid of Antivirus 2008, download a trial copy of(superadblocker) superadblocker.com and run a scan it will find antivirus 2008 and delete it its that easy .Its a good program and it is worth buying IT’S ONLY ABOUT £15.00

jake
#13. May 19th, 2008, at 10:23 PM.

I have a simple solution. I downloaded windows live care one, end of problem, it found the trojan problem and deleted it. No more xp virus, I will tell you that it will erase your current security means, not that it helped you anyway. But I figured you could stop banging your head against your keyboard.
jake

juan
#14. May 21st, 2008, at 8:54 AM.

no mamen todo esto esta en ingles…………

Jason Miller
#15. May 21st, 2008, at 7:05 PM.

Folks, the way to deal with this type of company is to call your credit card company and tell them you want to dispute the charge. The credit card company will take your side, tell you they hear this all the time and remove the charge from your account while they investigate. Very quick, very easy. Good luck!

Tammi Tracy
#16. May 22nd, 2008, at 12:10 PM.

On 4-18-08 I bought this program. I can’t find it any where on my computer to run it. What should I do?
Thanks, Tammi

msk
#17. May 24th, 2008, at 1:52 AM.

Please help I want to get rid of this fake xp antivirus and all the popups. I admit i made a mistake.

Niagne Agnero
#18. May 26th, 2008, at 10:43 PM.

Hi. I paid on line XP Antivirus 2008 on 05/23/2008 at 10:30AM.
My address is 120west 122th street New York 10026 Apt 6A.
I did not get any XP Antivirus 2008 yet.
Thank you

Niagne Agnero
#19. May 26th, 2008, at 11:00 PM.

I said, I paid this programm XP Antivirus 2008 on 05/23/2008 at 10:30 AM on line.
120west 112th street Apt 6A New York 10026.
I did not get any Programm XP Antivirus 2008 yet.

aman
#20. May 28th, 2008, at 9:46 PM.

xpantivirus .com/uninstall2008.exe. This worked for me…..directly type into the address bar and follow directions. good luck. These people need to be shut down.

Artie
#21. May 29th, 2008, at 9:50 AM.

I have this xp antivirus 2008, i thought it was from a microsoft update, but i dont even remember downloading it. It must have happened shortly after i updated my computer via a manual update to windows service pack 3 it took ages i have checked and it appears on the computer specifications window. But i never would download this antivirus because i already have a seemingly good ntl-netguard that has always been running continually in the background auto-updating and auto-removing.
I am puzzled as to how this programme ran without me noticing it.
I am mad.
Love to see new laws and more money invested to get computer hackers behind bars or make them suffer as we have suffered.

April
#22. May 29th, 2008, at 1:45 PM.

Thank you aman…did exactly what you said..and no more xp crap.
If you just do exactly what he tells you and type not copy and paste it, it will run an uninstall program immediately. It will remove it completely.

melissa
#23. May 30th, 2008, at 4:09 PM.

All I can say about this program is that it is the worst thing I have ever had on my pc. It has caused so many issues and I can not figure out how to uninstall it. Has anyone found out how to contact them to remove this program. I emailed them and still have no response. I want this off my pc now… lol. ok it is not funny but I’m pulling my hair out trying to get it to go away. Any suggestions?

sara
#24. May 30th, 2008, at 4:44 PM.

how do i delete xp anti virus 08 from my computer?

aman
#25. May 31st, 2008, at 5:54 PM.

Please read comment number 20 . Follow the directions. If you want to send me $29.99 instead I promise I wont plague your computer.

Sandy
#26. June 3rd, 2008, at 1:28 PM.

I tried the 2008.exe uninstall—-said it did it–2 seconds later–guess what–yep–it was still there–I re-started my comp.-bu that didn’t work either.
any other ideas??

aman
#27. June 3rd, 2008, at 9:15 PM.

windows or xp operating system? www.wiki-security.com check out this link down towards the bottom of the page and try manually removing the files listed. good luck

lkboysun
#28. June 4th, 2008, at 3:34 PM.

I downloaded for the same reason thinking I had 150 viruses andd now my computer is all messed. I am going to have dump my computer and start over. Not very cool at all. I also called my bank and i am disputing the charges. They said I had to file a police report and the whole thing. They will investigate this the person that is doing business in fraud. Good luck.

Bronagh?
#29. June 7th, 2008, at 9:50 AM.

i am really pissed. i didn’t buy it..it has downloaded my itself and i have tried EVERYTHING TO GET IT OFF….. BUT nothing worked…>:[
:’[ help me.. i need a way thath free. and this thing BLOCKS Everything single website i go onto…im PISSED! How do i get it to stop? x x x x xx xx
:’[
x x x

Steve
#30. June 9th, 2008, at 12:00 AM.

I did what Aman did and it worked great I just hope it aint still there hid somewhere on my registery or my hard drive

Steve
#31. June 9th, 2008, at 12:09 AM.

Where did you get that link aman? i get so tired of these other spy ware removals trying to charge you a arm and a leg and they dont half detect or remove dangerous trojans or spayware.

marvin pledger
#32. June 10th, 2008, at 8:20 AM.

if you god dam mother fuckers dont stay of my computer you will die .rember anthrices .you will get it stay the hell a way from me ass holes and i mean ever fuclking word i say you have no right to get on my computer ever fucking time i go on line and you will pay one way or another got bitches

Spence
#33. June 10th, 2008, at 9:40 PM.

I didnt want to pay for anti-spyware so i went to filehippo.com and downloaded three programs…

1. CCleaner
2. Spybot Search and Destroy
3. SpywareBlaster

After you get rid of your XP antivirus 2008, you can easily remove these three programs from the Add/remove program on your control panel.

hope this helps.

aman
#34. June 11th, 2008, at 12:02 AM.

I was fed up and checked about every website dedicated to ridding this bulls**t and got lucky on about the second maybe third site. I noticed that on the site comment number #37 that they actually will take you through all the files to check that it no longer exists. I was so fed up that I almost paid XP to just stop it all but realized thats just feeding all this. Im understanding just what a pain in the arse this is and hope this helps. Make sure your anti spyware is updated frequently and be cautious. I opened a picture of a new corvette thats how they got me. Go figure

aman
#35. June 11th, 2008, at 12:10 AM.

http://www.wiki-security.com/wiki/Parasite/XPAntivirus Also try this link.

me
#36. June 12th, 2008, at 1:16 PM.

I have never been so mad! I was online and all of a sudden this program was loading on my computer! It kept telling me that I had terriable issues. I clicked on my Norton and scanned and it came up as no issues. BUT, I can not get this thing off my computer. Folks do not buy this thing. I did not buy this, it was loading up and I could not stop IT…/p>

these stupid mother fuckers are going to get in a lot of trouble when someone traces were there money went and cut that mother fuckers neck wide open for there fraud successes.

Robert Walker
#37. June 15th, 2008, at 8:54 PM.

whatever you do, if you are loging onto that coupon clipping site that requires you to download a coupon printer, don’t! My wife logged on and when she down loaded the coupon pinter that also contained this virus “Antivirus 2008.”

When you down load it, it also installs this virus. There are no virus programs that will find any viruses on yur computer accept for this one… Go idea, make a program to look like a Microsoft antivirus program and have it load up finding fake viruses and then charge $49.95 to clean thm…

Contact the FTC to report wire fruad! http://www.ftc.gov

Get the last laugh!

Haden
#38. June 16th, 2008, at 1:44 PM.

I did the first thing Aman said to do. it took like 1 sec but when i get on google ill say that my computer still has XP2008 on it and that i need to stop it. if i try go to a web page like ebey or youtube or any thing this XP antivirus page pops up and keeps me from going to the site. im only on this page cuz i saved it to my favorites really fast. :)

katie
#39. June 16th, 2008, at 6:52 PM.

i was struggling with this virus for 8 stinking hours! I went through all the manual removal steps and came to the conclusion that this virus would be the death of me. I stumbled across a site that suggested to use a FREE download at www.malwarebytes.com. After i downloaded. I ran the scan and the program automatically removed all the virus and i am on my way again! I would HIGHLY recomend using this site to remove this pest!!

jovelina
#40. June 18th, 2008, at 8:36 AM.

será que dá pra colocar as instr~ções em portugues? já é complicado remover em portugues, imagine em ingles, pra que nao sabe falar esta lingua. por favor, me ajudem. bjos

Chris Rae tenace
#41. June 22nd, 2008, at 1:56 PM.

Is a computer automatically infected if they don’t click anything? I went to a wrong website and it had the advertisement for it but I already knew about the fraud before hand.

Ruthless One
#42. June 23rd, 2008, at 2:31 AM.

Forget about all the steps people tell you to take!

i.e. go here, remove this registry key, download this software, do this do that. Forget all of it. Follow these and you will save yourself time and a headache.

Simply do this:

Windows XP (reboot PC — repeadetly hit F8 until options come up)

Select Safe Mode (I selected Safe Mode with netowrking, but I do not think it matters)

When you log into your account in safe mode it will ask if you want to log in into safe mode or log into safe mode with the intent of using system restore. Choose the system restore option.

Pick the most recent restore point before this BS happened. Whoolah. Everything is fixed.

Background on my issue: I was actually at a “bad” website (not ashamed to admit it) and my wallpaper changed from what I had to a blue background with a yellow box saying that it had detected spyware and stuff. Then it automatically installed that stupid piece of shit XP Antivirus 2008 program.

I proceeded to read up on the issue and follow instructions of others with no luck. I installed various programs and tried various things and nothing worked. My computer rebooted on me and then I could log onto my windows account for about 1 minute before I would get a never ending BSOD (Blue Sceen of Death) of various error messages.

That is when I said screw it I just need to try a restore point. So I went into safe mode and chose that option (described above) and everything is fine.

I happen to have restore points for every day so I only lost a half days worth of stuff which was basically nothing. So in other words, no big deal. I should have just done this to begin with.

I hope this helps. Next time my birthday comes around my wish will be for the people behind this crap to suffer in hell

(My idea of hell: This would be where you cannot see anything because it is too dark……you can run/walk in any direction and never find anything…….you are alone with no one else there…….looping music of the Brady Bunch music……and the feeling of people poking you with tooth picks all over your body constantly.)

So I will wish that upon them or at the very least wish to meet them in person at some point and punish them beyond recognition for all of you.

Hope this helps!

Sally
#43. June 23rd, 2008, at 12:00 PM.

How the heck does this thing install without anyone noticing that it installed? Jeez, I tried Superantispyware and it didn’t remove it. I’m using SpyHunter right now and its taking like 2 hours!! I mean, how exactly does it just randomly appear everywhere without even needing to have you actually let it?
I don’t even know how it happened. My mom got on the computer and she told me to come over. So I saw the virus thing and I waited for it to scan. It was kind of suspicious-looking, ‘cuz I’d never heard of any of those types of files before and it kept writing some retarded bullshit about how there was the most dangerous virus in computer history and its danger level was high, and then it said that I had another virus that installed illegal software and its danger level was critical. I was like, huh? Slip up much? So when it restarted the computer by itself for no reason I was like, okay, this is obviously a fake cheapo virus inducing program. And I went online and tried to download stuff to get rid of it, but nothing’s working so far. I’ll try some of the other ones later, but jeez this thing is seriously annoying. It’s probably not even really harmful, but still. It’s messing my computer up.
You know what? I wish I knew whoever made this insanely stupid little virus program so I could punch them in the face about a hundred million times, rip every single piece of their hair out one at a time while they’re tied with piercing chains, kick ‘em where it hurts, and smash their computers with all their little virus programs. Seriously. Maybe I’ll go call the place and track them down and basically smack them all in the face and ruin their virus creating place. UGH! If I ever met the pathetic little imbecilic computer nerd who made such a stupid little-ass program, they’re going to get it. Virus programmers are just so inferior to everyone else in the world cuz people pick on them or whatever that they feel like they have to retaliate by ruining people’s computers. Puh-lease! They all deserve to die. And anyway, it’s not like they’re being smart by, um, making a stupid software that kind of installs itself and won’t die. It’s not as if you’re actually fooling anyone into your dumb little software…
Bottom line: DONT BUY ANYTHING! THEYRE ALL NERDY LITTLE RETARDS WHO DONT DESERVE ANY MONEY AND LIKE CAUSING COMPUTER ISSUES! IF YOU EVER FIND OUT WHO THEY ARE YOU SHOULD POISON THEM!
Haha yeah I’m being kind of extreme. Idk why I wrote all this but I feel like yelling at those idiots. Sorry for my loooong rant.

John
#44. June 23rd, 2008, at 1:59 PM.

This is how I got rid of Antivirus XP 2008. It is different than the XP Antivirus 2008 most sites refer to.

First you need to stop the program from loading on startup. This is what you do to stop it:

Start, run

Type msconfig

Go to Startup tab

Uncheck lphc35dj0e1an
Uncheck rhc75dj0e1an

Click apply, then ok
Restart computer

Then you need to delete the main files this program uses. Delete the following files:

C:\windows\system32\lphc35dj0e1an.exe
C:\program files\rhc75dj0e1an\rhc75dj0e1an.exe

This should remove the program from your system but you probably still have a warning message displayed as your wallpaper in Windows and the virus removed the ability to change the wallpaper or your desktop settings.

To restore ability to change your desktop settings and select a different wallpaper and screen saver do the following:

Start, run

type Gpedit.msc

Navigate to User configuration, Administrative Templates, Control Panel, Display

Right click on Remove Display in Control Panel
Click on Properties and select Disabled

Do the same steps to change the following attributes to disabled:

Hide Desktop Tab
Prevent changing wallpaper
Hide Apperance and Themes tab
Hide Settings tab
Hide Screen Saver tab

You should now be able to use your computer normally and change the wallpaper to something other than the warning message Antivirus XP 2008 set it to.

Kev408
#45. June 24th, 2008, at 12:52 AM.

hey, im think im really screwed, my did a system restore to the latest i had because i just started my computer today because i havent been on it since friday, and i just got this antivirus crap. i restored it, and i still had it at the latest time i restored.i really need some help, and im only 13. Really REALLLY desperate. Thanks. please )=

Diane
#46. June 24th, 2008, at 1:07 PM.

Thank you “Ruthless One” (comment #42). I followed your instructions and fixed the problem! So much easier than trying to figure out all the steps to deleting it. You saved me a bunch because I always end up running over the Geek squad to get rid of this kind of junk. I’m going to try this again in the future if we end up with anymore malware on our computers.

John Smith
#47. June 24th, 2008, at 6:06 PM.

we should all get together and file a class action law claim on these A-holes. This is bad business practice if you ask me, and they should be held liable for damages and losses. If anyone have contact information on these people, then please post it because I would really like to contact them and bring them to court.

kenny
#48. June 24th, 2008, at 6:10 PM.

katie, comment #39 was right on. download malwarebytes anti-malware remover. it worked for me. 2mins to download & install. 7 mins to run the scan. 1 second to hit remove xpantivirus. job done

denis
#49. June 24th, 2008, at 10:13 PM.

como faço para desinstalar o anti virus xp 08 ficarei agradecido se me ajudarem,instrução em portugues por favor?

grato

Joe Shmoe
#50. June 25th, 2008, at 12:07 AM.

dont download this site’s recommended removal software, in fact don’t download any of the ads either. its all B-S Spyware programs that trick you into buying their products. there are plenty of free spyware removal programs on the web such a AVG why waste your time with these jackbags

pagliaroli lino
#51. June 25th, 2008, at 8:47 AM.

vorrei eliminare il simbolo XP Antivirus 2008 dal desktop, quando navigo si aprono semre finestre in continuazione come devo fare? Mille grazie.

Robin
#52. June 25th, 2008, at 10:15 AM.

System Restore will not always help, since Antivirus XP can remove all previous restore points (my problem).

Ben
#53. June 25th, 2008, at 4:21 PM.

DO NOT LISTEN TO AMAN! I tried it and it installed a trojan! Luckily AVG popped up fast and I hit cancel download.

Ben
#54. June 25th, 2008, at 4:27 PM.

I’ve found an antivirus that actually detects and removes it! It is called SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition, I highly reccomend you use it.

Tam Tran
#55. June 26th, 2008, at 12:18 PM.

I think my computer crashed , because whenever i login to my computer, it wont take more than 1 min then it turn blue creen. I do’nt have time to do anything, not even run a scan. I need big help !!!thanks
Tam Tran

r.williams
#56. June 26th, 2008, at 4:02 PM.

Where do these bl–dy bastareds operate from?

r.williams
#57. June 26th, 2008, at 4:08 PM.

Why are these people allowed to operate? Imade the mistakeof falling for their speel despite having avg protectiion , in next to no time it had cost me £108 gbp, only when my more computor literate sons came home did I find that I had been tricked. Informed the credit card company but it was too late then.

tuckster
#58. June 26th, 2008, at 4:26 PM.

Thanks Ben! Superantispyware worked. once the trial is over they have my order.

v1v1
#59. June 27th, 2008, at 6:04 AM.

supprimé antivirus 2008 manuellement

démarré en mode sans echec
démarré-exécuté-msconfig
fenetre démarrage-décoché (rhclgkjoeedm)-
rédémaré normalement et supprimé ce fichier dans C/Programfiles/rhclgkjoeedm
parfois les scans prennent du temps donc si vous manqué de patience!

AntivirusExpert
#60. June 27th, 2008, at 1:49 PM.

John #44,
your instructions are up to the point, however I’d add that XP antivirus may use random filenames, not limited to lphc35dj0e1an.exe
I’m getting requests fro help from people, and I advise them to perform a search query like this: *phc*.* because it seems to reveal the related infected files; the *phc* pattern is common for this malware as I can conclude.

Useless with technology
#61. June 29th, 2008, at 7:10 AM.

I restored my computer and now ‘Advance XP fixer’ is on, i thought it was suspiscious so i looked it up and its another damn virus, with ‘XP Antivirus 2008′ it said i had 700+ viruses, and with this one it says i have 100+ viruses, i’m hoping thats a slightly good thing
Will Windows Live Care sort out this new virus too?

After restoring my PC it seems to have gotten rid of the XP Antivirus little bugger, unless its just updated itself to the ‘Advance XP fixer’

Fed Up
#62. June 29th, 2008, at 10:38 PM.

#42 Ruthless One… I have that awful blue screen with the yellow box too. I think this is something called Joke-Bluescreen and I have tried absolutely everything to get if off. I was able to get the XP Antivirus 2008 pop up thing that said I had 600 viruses to go away by removing it manually. My problem is that my system restore (which I have used in the past when my kids have screwed up the computer) will only give me one date to restore too.. and it’s the date that all these problems started! So now I don’t know what to do. I have read about this stuff and I know it’s all bogus and the screen is just a screen… but I dont want it on there:( Anyone have any suggestions? Any suggestions on how to fix the system restore so all the other dates previous to June 25 will come back?

Sara
#63. June 30th, 2008, at 9:53 AM.

I am having a evaluated AntiSpyCheck Alert software running on my laptop. I like to disable it and not to register for the software. Can you please help. I keep getting the pop-up message that I can’t stop it looping.

Thanks
Sara

john lennom
#64. June 30th, 2008, at 11:21 PM.

eu presiso muito da ajuda de vcs. por favor !!!!!!!
a minha arede rabalho ficou toda azul .. ñ tenho aceso a amis nada depois que eu intalei o antivirus xp 2008 .. como faso para desintalar esa merda….
os caras estão cobrando uma furtuna pra atualização ora esa……

R@ksh is the G@me
#65. July 1st, 2008, at 5:17 AM.

Hey Fed Up, it’s pretty easy.
Repair your windows by inserting your Operating System cd.
Then go in safe mode (Press F8) and remove the virus.
Download a good antivirus (AVG, which is free) and an anti-spyware (Xoft-spy or spyhunter), update both and scan for viruses or spywares.
Any problem just mail me on sylaish@hotmail.com, I shall help you.
Do mention about your problem in the heading.

lol
#66. July 1st, 2008, at 8:13 AM.

alter ist XP Antivirus ein müll

this is the best solution of all
#67. July 1st, 2008, at 8:30 AM.

1. Backup your data
2. Format it!
3. Done

Simple, right?

Matt
#68. July 1st, 2008, at 11:59 AM.

This application appears to be associated with certain botnet processes. The processes initiate TCP handshakes with other systems, both local and remote. Certain processes are masked from msconfig and task manager. Never trust virus popups without ensuring that the sources are trustworthy.

ethan
#69. July 1st, 2008, at 2:23 PM.

omg i cant figure out how to get this antivirus XP 2008 off my freakin computer!!!
some one help me please!!!
ive tryed everything i can but im not that good at computers so its not much!
someone help meee!!

Ruben
#70. July 2nd, 2008, at 9:31 AM.

This malware is the most insidious and nasty one I’ve encountered.
Ironically, I went to a website for purchasing an identical laptop, like the one I use, to ghost the software and have a hot spare ready. Unfortunately, when I executed the codec video, which I thought was a working version of the PC, the virus attached itself. I, like everyone else here, tried everything to remove it but refused to buy the “extortion” solution. I tried to restore using Safe Mode and the virus had changed my administrative password!!! I had no choice but to re-ghost my whole system, but before I did, I completely wiped out my hard-drive, reinstalled XP Professional, installed Acronis (for ghosting), and mirrored my laptop. All is back to normal, but I lost a lot of time and created a lot of aggravation in having to re-do a few weeks worth of work.

Before I did anything, I did take the laptop to the Geek Squad and they would have cleaned it up in 5 days for $200!

Do be careful if you backup data from the infected PC…all the files I copied onto the thumbdrive were all infected. I simply threw them away. Why take any chances?

But I am with #67 above, which may not help you if you didn’t do this pre-emptively:

1. Buy a hard drive for backing up your entire system
2. Buy software to ghost your entire system
3. Back up your entire system at least once per week
4. Keep a thumbdrive (8GB) to keep a bootable version of Fedora or Linux for your system if you need to get on the internet for emergencies with the infected PC.

I hope this helps and I do wish these SOBs that are initiating this XP Antivirus 2008 are stopped.

Good luck,

-R

JohnTallSmith
#71. July 2nd, 2008, at 1:32 PM.

Be aware that there is a new version of this virus out now in July 2008. Answer #44 is the best for this version. It did not fix my freinds computer but it’s the best info I’ve seen so far.
deleting the virus folder under c:\program files is a good start.

jgab
#72. July 2nd, 2008, at 3:13 PM.

amusant la lecture des commentaire de cette pages , on dirait le service aprés vente d’une start-up roumaine … (start up= jeune pousse)

le tutoriel ne m’a pas aidé (et pourquoi virer des fichiers system sains?)
voici ce que j’ai posté dans un forum de discussion à vous de voir …
Bonjour,
Je n’ai pas fait la même chose que dans le sujet : http://www.commentcamarche.net/forum/affich 4977938 xp antivirus notification ; pour l’éliminer , ce programme c’était activé après l’ouverture d’un ZIP ;
le programme n’arrêtait pas de venir m’alarmant (en anglais ) que mon pc était infecté …
J’ai fini par le virer du disque dur :grâce au raccourci qui pointait vers le programme , puis fermeture forcée du programme et suppression des fichiers du répertoire C:\Program Files\rhc33uj0ee9r\rhc33uj0ee9r.exe -voyez un peu le rapport du nom du fichier et du nom du programme ) , ses raccourcis , ses actions au démarrage (grâce a regedit)
par contre j’ai un problème supplémentaire : il m’a supprimer mon papier peint et l’a remplacer par un message disgracieux ( image posé sur mon blog http://storage.canalblog.com/30/94/279528/27459069.jpg ) et je n’ai plus accés dans le menu du bureau a la fonction fond d’écran pour changer le papier peint …

amy
#73. July 2nd, 2008, at 4:53 PM.

ok, this darn thing bugged me for days, this antivirus xp08, until i googled it, got directions, and now its gone……
go to start, search for all documaents on hard drive with that name in it, not anitvirus xp08, but the real name. (right click, properties) and then it brought up 5 programs with that name. it wouldnt let me delet them directly or move them untill i changed the name, moved them to the desktop then deleted them. it also didnt take the icon away from the desktop or the start menu. i had to delete the short cuts after i deleted the new named file. its finally gone!!!!

Hannah
#74. July 3rd, 2008, at 3:38 PM.

This is stupid.
I download SpywareHunter, and when it comes down to deleting all of the friggin’ Antivirus2008 crap, they want me to buy it too!

guillaume
#75. July 3rd, 2008, at 3:56 PM.

je ne sais pas comment j’ai attrappé cette merde mais j’ai été obligé de tout réinstaller xp inadmissible , kaspersky ne m’a pas aidé à supprimer ce trojan, attention !!!!!!!!!!!!

Florian
#76. July 4th, 2008, at 5:13 PM.

CAUTION !!! I just uploaded xpantivirus.com/uninstall2008.exe from post #20 (aman) to virustotal.com. Many virus engines are complaining about it. Apparently it is containing new malware - even if it deletes xp antivirus 08. So I did not touch it.

titan
#77. July 5th, 2008, at 4:44 PM.

ei,galera,passem primeiro o spybot sd 152 e depois a avg at sp 7.5
espero q isso sirva,pois comigo deu certo,um abraço.

Big Tuna
#78. July 6th, 2008, at 1:01 AM.

Hey, I was recently by this thing and i actually used Aman’s advice. it worked to get rid of the xp antivirus 2008, but my computer still has some damn trojans and all this other crap. i’m using katie’s solution which was ‘malwarebytes.com’ or whatever, and i’m waiting for the scan to complete. does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get rid of the other viruses that are still there? manually, or free programs are appreciated. thank you.

- Big Tuna

Charley
#79. July 6th, 2008, at 9:22 PM.

I have the xp antivirus on my system and it has shut everything down. I can’t access any screen to delete this “cancer”.
Any help?
If I can’t fix it do I need to replace my hard drive and start over?

SEARogue
#80. July 6th, 2008, at 11:12 PM.

Hello all, just wanted to put an FYI up. FYI, the “B.S.O.D. or Blue screen of death” that you all are seeing are in FACT NOT BSOD, they are images the program loads. If you wait it out, the program will go through many, many of them & eventually come back to your main desktop screen ( the one that shows the blue & yellow desktop image).
A friend got this on his pc & I haven’t had any success getting rid of it yet. I tried removing it manually, tried a couple different spyware removal programs, a registry program to remove malware etc & even went through the registry manually. I plan on trying the malwarebytes tomorrow after he gets off work & will post an update then.

P.S. Hackers get the bum rap for everything bad due to mis-informed people. The media & many internet sites mis-inform people that “Hackers” are responsible for many things such as this & other things which hackers in FACT are not responsible for. It ERKS me to no end when hackers get the rap for crap that has nothing to do with hacking. Hackers get the rap for phreakers, script kiddies, etc etc. If you don’t know it was in FACT a “Hacker”, PLEASE, don’t blame a hacker & continue the mis-information loop.
TB.

Vanya
#81. July 7th, 2008, at 12:33 AM.

Hey, comment #44 worked for me, as far as removing the virus, thanks!
However…I have XP Home, so the gpedit.msc thing didn’t work for me. So I went ahead and searched and found a way to get it for XP Home. I disabled all those various attributes, but…it still doesn’t let me change the desktop wallpaper. I restarted my computer and everything, but it’s simply not working.
Any more advice?

JORGE
#82. July 7th, 2008, at 1:43 AM.

INSTALE UN WINDOWS 98 XP NO ACTUALIZABLE Y AHORA ME DICE QUE PUEDO SER VICTIMA DE UNA FALSIFICACION. REINGRESE EL NUMERO DE SERIE POR LA MISMA PAGINA RECOMENDADA POR EL AVISO Y EL AVISO SIGUE..QUE ME RECOMIENDAN?
DESDE YA MUCHAS GRACIAS!

matt chopper
#83. July 7th, 2008, at 3:53 AM.

Hi all, tried post #44’s suggeestions, worked like a breeze.

One thing though the GPEDIT.msc step only works if you have XP pro.. If you have home version that program isnt on your PC.

Tara
#84. July 7th, 2008, at 4:02 PM.

None of the “learn how to do this” links are working. I click on them and click on them and get nothing.

Tara
#85. July 7th, 2008, at 7:03 PM.

WOOOO-HOOOOOOO Nevermind, I tried that Malwarebytes program and it worked like a charm. I’m still not entirely sure EVERYTHING has been removed, but I don’t have the same problems when I restart anymore. This was a vicious virus and it took me a looooong time to get rid of it, so thanks everyone for all the advice that was posted on here, helped out alot.

PARA JORGE
#86. July 7th, 2008, at 10:03 PM.

IDIOTA, ANDA Y COMPRA UN WINDOWS ORIGINAL!

Corky
#87. July 8th, 2008, at 1:42 AM.

hi! Thx for the tutorial!

SAMURAY
#88. July 8th, 2008, at 9:58 AM.

ISSO É VIRUS ACHO QUE ISSO É ROUBO ESTOU ENTRANDO EM PPROCESSO CONTRA ESTA EMPRESA ,, FAÇA O MESMO ESTA NO NOSSO CODIGO PENAL E LEI DO CONSUMIDOR SABIAM DISSO,,, E A MULTA É DE 12 MIL REAIS

PC User
#89. July 8th, 2008, at 6:02 PM.

First, I upgraded my McAfee subscription. It is always safe to have a backup antivirus software. Then I proceeded to follow some of the instructions mentioned above. I downloaded SuperAntiSpyware Free Edition, and ran a full scan. I got my instructions from this site.

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/675991

After the full scan, SuperAntiSpyware gave me a list of the infected files, and I deleted all of them. However, after I rebooted my PC, the blue screen with the warning sign was still there. So I downloaded the Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malaware software. I believe this program really made a difference. After I did a full scan, once again, I quarantined and removed all the infected files. By the way, while the Malware Scan is running, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE and only delete the exe file that has the lphc35dj title in it. End that process, then exit your task manager.

In addition to these two programs, I followed most of the manual XP Antivirus 2008 Instructions on this site. I went to SEARCH and tried to find and delete these files:
shlwapi.dll
wininet.dll
But when I tried to delete them, they wouldn’t delete. So I went on a forum and noticed someone suggest that I should change the DLL to DOC, then place the DOC file onto my desktop, reboot my computer, and finally delete them. It worked.

Also, go to SEARCH again and look for more files titled “XP Antivirus” in the My Computer drop down menu. Delete any files given that fake title, and you should be good to go.

I also found Comment #44 very helpful. Please refer to that.

In my opinion, stopping this virus requires a lot of patience and time. Remember to always run a full scan, and schedule a scan on your antivirus software once a week. Good luck to all!

Mike
#90. July 8th, 2008, at 8:32 PM.

Malwarebytes worked for me. Thank you!

Joanie
#91. July 10th, 2008, at 4:57 AM.

After hours of trying to sort this, I managed to go to www.malwarebytes.com and downloaded the latest version. It ran a scan and if found over 300 serious errors! I deleted them all, then re-booted the computer - IT WORKED - even though it is running a little slow. I then ran my own McAfee anti-virus scan, which quarantined a few files. This worked for me - I hope it helps you too and thank you for Kate (No.39) who suggested it. Good luck!

Klaus Baier
#92. July 10th, 2008, at 12:21 PM.

Katie, ich bin ihnen dankbar!!!!!!!!!!.
Habe den download von www.malwarebytes.com gemacht. Dann lief der Scan ca. 3 St. - Und danach drückte ich auf entfernen und war alles los. Mein System ist wieder sauber und startete ohne Probleme.
Vielen vielen Dank für den Tip. !!!!!!

mfg
Baier

cool
#93. July 10th, 2008, at 8:21 PM.

every body its working im very happy
hey if everybody need help this is my email (cowok_cool123@yahoo.com)
im so happy

kill those motherfuckers
#94. July 12th, 2008, at 6:20 PM.

My PC has been infected so many times that has cost me thousands of dollars, I wish there are some organizations or groups that can track down those virus/spyware making motherfuckers and kill them all !!!!!!!
What’s the meaning of their existance to human race ??
they are alive just to cost damage and hurt people,
human rights is for normal people and not for those motherfuckers!!!

Marty
#95. July 12th, 2008, at 10:24 PM.

After hours of trying to get rid of this crap myself I seen where someone suggested trying malwarebytes. I downloaded the free version and ran it and it worked. The scan took a little over an hour and found 139 problems but once I deleted them my system is now running normal. Thank you to the person who suggested malwarebytes it worked great.

OhSoPissed.
#96. July 13th, 2008, at 12:00 AM.

Omg,
I’ve spent about 2 days trying to sort this mess and I think I might have successfully deleted the virus but no matter how many times I tried to manually restore my desktop wallpaper option and reboot it, It always returns me back to the blue desktop wallpaper and a message saying I should install an antivirus program. And I also come across few Blue-Screen-Of-Death (BSOD) … Please help?

Nole
#97. July 13th, 2008, at 1:24 AM.

God damn it.
My mother installed this.
Now, I think it’s fair to blame my mother now for everything.

mike l
#98. July 13th, 2008, at 1:25 AM.

I have both malware protector 2008 and antivirus xp 2008 on my computer. Is there a program that i can buy off the selves i.e. from an computer store that i can install to get rid of these viruses?

ninja
#99. July 13th, 2008, at 4:15 AM.

I used the NOD Antivirus to remove it one my friends comp and a system restore point to remove it on mine. The only problem is that we still cant get the task manager to be accessible on his and on my comp; my background is unable to be changed. anyone know how to fix this side effect?

Brian
#100. July 14th, 2008, at 2:19 AM.

Most advice available online to get rid of xp antivirus 2008 is crap. In my case, this piece of shit was able to block installation of true anti spyware programs and block websites where I could download fixes. It was even telling my antivirus that I have no internet connection when trying to update to the latest definitions.

If this happens to you… and you have certain true anti spyware software installed, try renaming the executables (either the installers or the actual programs) to something else. If you cannot download anything because it has taken over your Internet Explorer try to use another computer (friends, family, work) to download from www.malwarebytes.com or www.spybot.com or www.bitdefender.com or www.norton.com or www.trendmicro.com or whatever, rename the installer and copy it from USB drive or watever on your desktop and run it.

The idiots that made this junk are actually a bunch of amateurs.

Joe
#101. July 14th, 2008, at 11:29 PM.

Gotta love this stuff. Blocks Task Manager, Blocks Control Panel, Blocks everything you would need to uninstall it. Don’t know if this was a recent change to it, but now if you have no anti spyware tools (bro’s computer) none of the things listed in this “manual” work. System Restore is wiped out to AFTER it was installed, can not run ANY programs, complete waste of time to attempt to rid the system of. All we could do was boot up in safe mode, pull whatever files he needed to an external HD, and reformat.

SilverGenesis
#102. July 15th, 2008, at 5:08 PM.

My dad got this spyware on his laptop and the program wrote itself in to a different registry. I suggest using a scanner to find where it is. All the advice on line isn’t concrete. The names for the executables are all different from what I’ve found. I have complete gibberish for file names. Either pay for a good spyware removal program like Spyhunter or Spyware Doctor, or use their free scanning functions to your advantage.

I know where everything is in terms of the spyware, but I can’t get rid of it. The program locked itself in to my dad’s system. This is a freaking annoying problem.

mary
#103. July 15th, 2008, at 7:57 PM.

this is what i found from another site. and IT WORKED to remove this stupid annoying antiviurs xp 2008.

First you need to stop the program from loading on startup. This is what you do to stop it:

Start, run

Type msconfig

Go to Startup tab

Uncheck lphc35dj0e1an
Uncheck rhc75dj0e1an

Click apply, then ok
Restart computer

Then you need to delete the main files this program uses. Delete the following file:

C:\windows\system32\lphc35dj0e1an.exe

Then delete the following folder and all files in it:

C:\program files\rhc75dj0e1an

This should remove the program from your system but you probably still have a warning message displayed as your wallpaper in Windows and the virus removed the ability to change the wallpaper or your desktop settings.

To restore ability to change your desktop settings and select a different wallpaper and screen saver do the following:

Start, run

type Gpedit.msc

Navigate to User configuration, Administrative Templates, Control Panel, Display

Right click on Remove Display in Control Panel
Click on Properties and select Disabled

Do the same steps to change the following attributes to disabled:

Hide Desktop Tab
Prevent changing wallpaper
Hide Apperance and Themes tab
Hide Settings tab
Hide Screen Saver tab

You should now be able to use your computer normally and change the wallpaper to something other than the warning message Antivirus XP 2008 set it to.

damaris
#104. July 15th, 2008, at 9:58 PM.

thanks for the info hopefully it helps but idk how this got into my laptop cuz i never download anythin. well we will see thanx

sarpedonslain
#105. July 15th, 2008, at 10:41 PM.

July 14th this thing hit my office manager’s computer. How it got there is currently unknown. It reset admin password, seemed to grow and make things slower over time. Got into task manager briefly during startup load, saw two unfamilar processes which I now know from #44 were the #$!# thing, but couldn’t get to them in time to shut them down. Followed the first steps of #44 to stop them from loading up. Now am going to tinker and decide for myself the best way or program to finally but the sword in the heart of this beast. Thanks to all who posted their ideas.

Carter
#106. July 15th, 2008, at 11:59 PM.

Malwarebytes.com — it works.

DO NOT buy Antivirus XP 2008!

Winoff
#107. July 16th, 2008, at 2:37 PM.

Guys try kaspersky antivirus 7.0,it kicks the shit out of xp antivirus 2008

jasper
#108. July 16th, 2008, at 3:45 PM.

Got rid of that fricking thing using Malwarebytes.com , Running Win XP Pro. Tried all kinds of fixes, this is the only one that worked for me. Even took the icon off the desk top. It had my pooter screwed up real bad!!! Thanks guys.
jasper

DK
#109. July 16th, 2008, at 5:25 PM.

Thank you very much Mary (#107), such a blessing to have nice people like you who took the pain to document out such detailed steps so that others don’t have to go through the pain you did. Bless you Mary!…

alex
#110. July 17th, 2008, at 12:18 AM.

Thx all for malwarebytes.com

it worked very nicely

RAHU
#111. July 17th, 2008, at 3:56 PM.

is this a genuine antivirus that protects the system or just trying to sloil the system ……………..

Chris
#112. July 18th, 2008, at 3:02 PM.

Just yesterday, my mom and brother were on the Internet when a screen popped up saying that our computer had 41 infected files. They clicked the ad and pressed run. The program was then on our computer. This is a scam. Make sure if this happens, do not click into it. It isn’t an easy program to get rid of. I did manage to get rid of it for now. I haven’t seen any messages. Here’s how I got rid of it:

1) I pressed Ctrl + Alt + Delete to bring up Task Manager.

2) I clicked on the tab labeled Processes.

3) I scrolled down until I found a program that had antivirus in it. (It did not say the whole word, but it had pieces of it.)

4) I selected it, then clicked end process. A Task Manager Warning popped up. I clicked yes to end the program. The program then stopped and was removed from the bottom taskbar.

5) Then I went to program files on the hard drive. I went to the folder that read Antivirus 2008. I then deleted that folder. Make sure you empty the Recycle Bin.

6) I opened the Start Menu, and I clicked Search. I typed in antivirus 2008 to make sure nothing came up. There were some files that came up from it. I deleted them, and emptied the Recycle Bin.

That has gotten rid of everything that was popping up. To check, go to http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/. Do the Full Service Scan on the page. It will check for any virus and spyware, plus do a performance checkup of the computer. Depending on the computer’s hard drive space, it could take two hours or more. As I said, I haven’t received any more messages on my computer from them. I have Windows XP, so I’m not quite sure if it would work in Windows Vista or previous versions of Windows or Macintosh. I hope that this helps.

Warlock
#113. July 18th, 2008, at 4:13 PM.

I don’t even recall clicking on anything different when this idiotic Anti Virus XP 2008 popped up and continued to do its thing. I used malwarebytes and it found and cleaned it all up with very little intervention.

kamran
#114. July 18th, 2008, at 5:57 PM.

i want to thanx comment 44 i helpetd very much with my problem

Monika
#115. July 19th, 2008, at 1:28 PM.

I tried everything, but it still works.

Xenotastic
#116. July 20th, 2008, at 8:07 AM.

For those people who can’t access there task manager and such things like that. Open your regedit (always remeber to create a export copy incase something goes wrong) and look for reg keys that have names like “notaskmng” and “nobackground” and my favorite “nocontrolpanel” yeah. those are fun little items you will want to switch to “0″ instead of 1. It really helps.

Ammu
#117. July 20th, 2008, at 10:54 PM.

Guys. i got the same prob yesterday. Antivirus 2008 showed i have 2866 viruses in my system. I executed norton. It din detect anything. Tried to download mca fee from net. But it said my net connection is either limited or not connected. Task manager was also disabled. Restarted the system. But its not getting booted. It gets stuck with the Windows Welcome screen. Can anybody suggest me how to get rid of this antivirus 2008.

Rob
#118. July 20th, 2008, at 11:39 PM.

One dang frustrating bit of malware.

Jeff
#119. July 21st, 2008, at 5:24 PM.

IT’S EASIER THAN YOU THINK!

Hey guys. I got rid of Antivirus XP 2008 in a matter of minutes using system restore and i didnt have to fool around with the whole task manager and deleting .dll junk. (i actually couldnt even open task manager as it was disabled by the virus). just restart your computer and hit F8 during start up and run you’re computer in safe mode. It’ll then prompt you for system restore. all you gotta do is make sure the date you choose to restore it to was before you got the malware. i only had mine for a matter of days :) make it easy on yourself and just do system restore. hope this helps, let me know :D

Mack11
#120. July 21st, 2008, at 11:24 PM.

The above didn’t work for me but the following did.
1. Disable System Restore
-go to programs > Accessories >System tools > system Restore.
-check off turn off system restore checkbox

2. Open task manager (ctrl+Alt+Delete). Under Processes tab, look for phce3qj0ep29.exe. highlight and Click End Process

3. Go to C:\WINDOWS\system32
-Find a .exe file called lphce3qj0ep29.exe and delete it

4. Click start , then Run. Type msconfig
Under Startup tab look for lphce3qj0ep29 and uncheck it. click ok and restart computer.

tlsmith1138
#121. July 21st, 2008, at 11:45 PM.

Run Adaware (free). It will have to clean up most of it after a reboot. Then, get yourself a real AV like AVG. It will clean up what’s left. Someone should publish the names and faces of the people behind this kind of stuff.

crossey
#122. July 22nd, 2008, at 4:20 AM.

ha i dint even download this sh*t program would love to meet the people who made it tho. . . . . . as it has F****D my comp i have only jus rebooted xp not happy at all now anti virus tells me 2843 serious viruses hahaha they make me laugh i hate these people make a geniune program for f**ck sake!!!!!!!!

sean
#123. July 22nd, 2008, at 8:27 AM.

i had this awful virus and i tried everything to get the dam thing off.
the problem is it rewrites half ur system files which makes it nearly impossible to get off.
ie your uninstall will not work on it or your system restore even your pc recover is effected.
if you manage to delete all the files that come with it from the operating system you lose alot of your running system .
the only way to be sure that youve got rid of it for sure is to do a complete re format of your drive.
you will lose loads of your installed programs because u cant back them up because the virus is in their programming as well but at least you dont have to buy a new drive which you will if you leave the virus running to long.
ps i hope the shitty hacker that wrote this thing dies a very slow and painful death!

jeepey
#124. July 23rd, 2008, at 3:46 PM.

What I don’t get about this kinda program is, why the heck do they not go to jail? It is easy to find the people behind it, since they are making money on it. Why are they allowed to continue?

Gael
#125. July 24th, 2008, at 12:38 PM.

Thank’s a lot for all this information beacause this F……g programm boring me since 1 week… i can’t believe it. I hope i could unastall it with this help…

ismiy
#126. July 24th, 2008, at 1:58 PM.

the guys who did this should be given a hundred lashes each. and in the presence of a good crowd too! The messages were sooo lame I should have laughed! Allright, I admit they are “kewl” enough to break into the peoples’ systems, but they are’nt sensible enough to do better things with their skill. Anyway, what i did was search for all the recently created files and .dlls and delete them. I also killed the nessary tasks(in my own case, they ended with 09c) before coming here for help. thanks to the useful posters here -[ john(44) i see u!] I’m clean!

Dayn
#127. July 25th, 2008, at 3:07 AM.

Delete all antivirus installed on pc. REBOOT. Run command type regedit ……..select HK CURRENT USER select the 2008 vrs?bshit folder and delete.. Next at run cmd. type msconfig …select startup and uncheck antvrs…..next right click on start…explore ..program files.. find the bs folder 2008 antvrs ect. and delete.. it will give you an error most often.. then go to files find ..antvrs.exe…. delete it .. reboot ….computer will come back up tell you how its day is going.. check dont show again…

Good Luck!!

Fred
#128. July 25th, 2008, at 4:18 PM.

To remove these files boot up in safe mode. This prevents them protecting them selves and enables delete etc..

bobby
#129. July 25th, 2008, at 5:56 PM.

i got this thing too. i have got it not to load at start up,but i can’t get the programs to delete. also, although i had a restore point everyday, now none of them work except the ones after it came in. how do i start up in safe mode and get restore to work?

Grateful
#130. July 25th, 2008, at 6:59 PM.

John # 44

Your suggestion worked like a charm…………I owe you a beer!
(Unless you’re under 21………..then I owe you a Coke!!)

Much Thanks!!!!

Grateful

Chris DeSimone
#131. July 25th, 2008, at 8:15 PM.

Hello folks, try this free removal software, worked like a champ for me http://www.free-av.de/en/download/1/avira_antivir_personal__free_antivirus.html

Sorin
#132. July 26th, 2008, at 10:26 PM.

Guys i tried to erase the thing from my pc and i made it … step by step and i had also a help from my personal antivirus and firewall but i do business on my pc and to be 100 % sure i formated the whole hard disk and reinstalled fresh copy of windows .. i advice you to do the same … it takes couple of hours but you are sure …

HELP ME NOW I NEED HELP WITH ANTIVIRUS 2008 ITS URGENT
#133. July 27th, 2008, at 10:32 PM.

Okay, i didnt download anything, but apparently antivirus 2008 popped up and i knew it was a rogue spyware because of my encounter with the antivirus 2007. I just followed it to the C:/ drive and deleted all the .Dll files and everything in there. i did it by right clicking and choosing properties from the Antivirus 2008 icon that appeared on my desktop and looking at the address, went to it, and deleted everything.

will that get rid of it…?

xandiira
#134. July 28th, 2008, at 1:50 AM.

John Kovich is right! I did a SYSTEM RESTORE to a later date, yesterday in my case, and gone it went!

josh s
#135. July 28th, 2008, at 8:48 AM.

hey all.. Katie with comment 39 had it right
www.malwarebytes.com… download the most recent or current version, install it, and for me it took 17 minutes, but it found and deleted 32 files associated to this mess. MalwareBytes Anti-Malware may request a reboot to remove a few of the infected files, as it did with me… but upon reboot you have your task manager, and everything back to normal.

Running Windows XP….
thank you Katie…

Download with confidence.

Mary
#136. July 28th, 2008, at 9:50 AM.

John (#44),

Just wanted to say thanks. I’ve looked all over for the way to put my desktop back. Your instructions using gpedit.msc were great. I wish I’d found your instructions for how to get rid of the malware before I spent $29.00. However, it’s gone and now my desktop is back.

Bob
#137. July 29th, 2008, at 11:29 AM.

Had this scumbag piece of software infect my PC after opening an attachment in an e-mail supposedly from UPS. As we were expecting a package from France via UPS and the e-mail said the attachment was the invoice, I opened it. It did nothing immediately and was only when I switched my PC on the following morning that I realised I’d been infected with this feckin XP Antivirus 2008. After a few hours and with a bit of help from a couple of our IT guys we ended up using Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware and got rid of it. It really does work and you can download it for free.

The barstard scumbags behind this malicious piece of software deserve a premature, slow and painful death for the misery they’ve caused to many thousands of people around the globe,

Mayank
#138. July 30th, 2008, at 3:48 AM.

I was also duped by this f****** malware. I was seeing a demo of one opensource product and then I got the pop up to install a codec, in my bout of stupidity I did that. Thats how it all started.

It disabled my task manager, registry editor and even the program files, search and run were not being displayed. My C drive was not visible under ‘My computer’ and in the task manager clock instead of AM or PM, it was showing VIRUS ALERT!.

I struggled for around 12 hours, finally threw it out of my computer. I ran a complete scan using AVG which did not complete on a couple of occasions and windows threw BSOD. Then instead of doing a full scan, I did few partial scans and removed whichever virus/spyware were deted Then, I downloaded Malwarebyte’s AntiMalware software from http://www.malwarebytes.org/. It solved the problem for me. It is absolutely free and worked fine for me.

I also looked for solutions to unlock my task manager and registry editor. I deleted the ANTIVIRUS XP 2008 folder in the program files too. Actually, I was getting desperate to kick this shit out of my comp asap.

asteve
#139. July 30th, 2008, at 8:49 AM.

Malwarebytes worked for me. As I have XP home I can’t run gpedit.msc. Any ideas?

dabblu
#140. July 30th, 2008, at 3:25 PM.

very bad antivirus he is self giving viruses and telling to buy…
guies fuck this antivius…
xp antivirus 2008 is fucking…..

orlandol
#141. July 31st, 2008, at 2:42 PM.

Ok, but how do you remove the Desktop lock? I don’t see local policies set, yet I can only see 3 options int he Display Properties, rather than the usual 6 or so.

orlandol
#142. July 31st, 2008, at 2:46 PM.

Disregard, I just saw Johns excellent answer to what I asked.. Sorry XD

asteve
#143. July 31st, 2008, at 8:49 PM.

To restore your wallpaper;
right click on you desktop
properties
desktop
customise desktop
web
uncheck privacy protection
apply changes

Taylor
#144. August 2nd, 2008, at 12:30 AM.

You all dont seem to get that this ISNT a virus scanner. This is a virus itself, its a form of Malware posing as a microsoft product to let you sit here clueless while it does stuff. You cant contact anyone from the company because they dont give a crap, there causing the problems.

Sorry, im jut reading alot of stuff from people who think there still using a real virus scanner.

Manu
#145. August 2nd, 2008, at 7:21 AM.

ARG! I managed to get rid if the xp (anti)-antivirus…. with Superantispyware but this bug killed about everything on my computer.
Now xp antvirus is gone my internet wont work and even norman antivirus wont open. OH yea, this *** virus reset the system restore points so i cant even do a restore. :(
Anyone experienced similar problems and knows how to solve them?

Sayler
#146. August 3rd, 2008, at 10:54 AM.

I also have the blue screedn but I can’t even log on to the start screen. I have tried many time times by restoring and rebooting my computer. It’s done nothing but given me an administrator log in. I just need help logging on to get to the start menu. HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!

Sakib
#147. August 3rd, 2008, at 8:29 PM.

Guys, look for the following entries into the registry and DELETE, without any hesitation.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\rhc9ndj0en5g
Also a Folder name “rhc9ndj0en5g” sits into the Program files on your computer, delete that as well.

samrey
#148. August 4th, 2008, at 2:50 AM.

does anyone elses computer shutdown after about 5 minutes on normal mode?

Mitch
#149. August 4th, 2008, at 8:42 AM.

I just was duped into downloading this crap last night.

There current website is www.av-xp-2008.com. The phone numbers for “support” — I saved the “invoice” — are:

+1.8004671077 (USA)
33-4-26467151 (France)
49-511-260982104 (Germany)
34-911-871502 (Spain)

I have not called yet, but plan to.

Mitch
#150. August 4th, 2008, at 10:31 AM.

I meant their (not there) current website..,, in my comment above.

Anyway, it looks like they are in Russia. A whois.net search on
www.av-xp-2008.com revealed the following info:

Registration Service Provided By: ESTDOMAINS INC
Contact: +1.3027224217
Website: http://www.estdomains.com

Domain Name: AV-XP-2008.COM

Registrant:
eccos inc
krab (krab@thekrab.com)
ny 37str
krabvill
Adygeja - Respublika,1111
RU
Tel. +1.324234234

Creation Date: 31-Jul-2008
Expiration Date: 31-Jul-2009

Domain servers in listed order:
ns5.av-xp-2008.com
ns4.av-xp-2008.com
ns3.av-xp-2008.com
ns2.av-xp-2008.com
ns1.av-xp-2008.com

Bullettube
#151. August 4th, 2008, at 3:20 PM.

What galls me is that this Trojan disguised itself as a Windows Defender update and I clicked Okay! I was following a series of links from Yahoo news to another site to view a crazy accident video. When it didn’t play, I should have just backed out and forgot about it. But I clicked on the “flash” upgrade button, and presto! I had the virus.
.
Zone ALarm warned me, but when I saw the word “windows xp20008″ I clicked “allow”. Then Spybot asked weather I wanted to run the install program, and I allowed it again!
.
I bought an additional program last night called “Spy Hunter”, but it’s no better then “SpyBot” which is free. Both programs can stop the running program, but neither program can find the spawn and delete it. If I can’t find where the program spawns from, my only other option is to reformat my drives and start over. I have my back-ups, and my updates are all on a CD, but I’m looking at a 3 day job!
.
Now,,I know the exact time and date the virus struck, so I’ve used this info to track down the bad files. This has meant I’ve gone thru every folder in Windows, looking for any file whose creation date or date last modified was 10:16pm 08/03/2008. One folder is called dllcache, it contained a huge number of DLLs !!! many called “rename” or “redirect”, I mean, how naive is that?
Any file that can’t be deleted I first rename it to “dol” and then I reboot, go back into search and delete all files with the “dol” extension.
If you’re familiar with the old DOS system, then you’ll know a few tricks to speed things up. The asterisk can be used before or after the dot, example : lkhsfuns.exe can be written as Ikhsfuns.* aqnd you’ll find any other file with that name as well.
.
Some “dll” files can’t be deleted while that are being used. Rename the file to a “dol” file instead. I use DOL because it’s easier to remember.
Then do a search for all files with the “dol” extension: “asterisk dot dol” and you’ll get all the files you renamed.
.
Write down the locations of the files, for instance a lot of the files are in windows/system32, and in documents/settings/your name.
Note the processes in Task Manager, write down the file name then do a search to find where the virus put those files.
.
Now all I need to do is find where the virus is hiding! I figure it must have come in disguised as a codec then once I had okayed the install program, it hid itself somewhere. I have multi-drives, the smallest is 120gig, so It’s a small needle in a big haystack!
.
Task manager shows 3 programs that are interesting.
CCC.exe
COCIManager.exe
MOM.exe
I can generally tell what a process is by the first letters, “ati….” will indicate my video card etc. Legitimate programs will show up in a search, and the date the file was created will tell you if it’s the virus or not.
A search of the above will turn up nothing, stopping the process has no ill effects, but when I reboot, they are back. Now where are these programs hiding, and are they the spawn? If anyone knows, please post!

Bullettube
#152. August 4th, 2008, at 3:26 PM.

A lot of people are saying to delete certain files such as “rhc9fs050p.exe” and so on. But unless the spawn is discovered and deleted, the Trojan will simply recreate new files when you reboot.
Once you end the processes in Task Manager, the annoying and dangerous stuff will stop, but the stupid graphics remain. As long as you don’t reboot, you’ll be fine. Which means some of you will have to leave your PC on forever if you can’t find the parent program that spawns itself every time you boot your PC.

Maktool
#153. August 4th, 2008, at 10:53 PM.

Greetings frustrated PC users.
I am a tech fro a company that has over 2000 pc users.
I see this problem on 2 to 3 pc a week.
It is clearly illegal what these people are doing and thus
we should start a Class Action Lawsuit.
Can someone tell me which judge has not heard of this
if not went through the same thing we are going through.
I am a tech and know my way pretty well around the registry,
which is where you have to wack out their files. An average
pc user should not go to the registry and start looking for
their files.
let us start this action lawsuit.
her is my email address if somone is going to start this
mhatmal@yahoo.com

Jay
#154. August 5th, 2008, at 2:50 AM.

!!!SOLUTION!!!

www.malwarebytes.com (download with confidence)

I had all the same symptoms, its started with a codec pop up and led me to this nightmare. Pop ups, disabled system restore, removed desktop property tabs, scanning telling me false viruses and insisting I buy there program (DO NOT DO IT, ITS FAKE)

1) I am not good with computers, I just know the basics. So I did not try and manually search and remove these virus files.

2) I downloaded and tried several FREE trial scans finding some of the viruses but not all and telling me I have to pay to remove them.

3) I tried this option posted above by Aman, typing xpantivirus.com/uninstall2008.exe and using the uninstall, that did not work.

4) I came across a site suggested above Malwarebytes removal. Figured its worth a try my pc is doomed anyway, and IT WORKED, FLAWLESSLY. Download the latest version like you would any other spyware junk program and scan and remove what it finds. It says you other files will be removed upon restart, so restart it.

(Issues I had but hopefully you wont, first couple times I was scanning my pc crashed, I had to restart and scan again. it even brought me to a blue screen upon restart several times, I pushed ESC (escape button) and I was good. Nonetheless it eventualy scanned and I removed everything. My pc is now running better then ever, it must have found other little things I never knew about)

I hope this works, I spent hours searching and trying suggestions, this one worked. I hope it works for you guys too.

Good luck,
Jay

MsLaurel
#155. August 5th, 2008, at 3:34 AM.

What a pest this little virus has turned out to be. Out, out, out, damned spot! My Adaware, Trend Micro, and Spyware Doctor were no match for this little bug (want to say a hundred other words to describe it but have decided to be more than nice). Try this, by all means: Superadblocker; it took care of it, amazingly; just the trial version; gone, gone, gone! Try it! I will pay to get their full version, trust me. Good luck to all and bad luck to the little $$$??### damned spot.

Steve Bennett
#156. August 5th, 2008, at 12:09 PM.

Can be got rid of if you know what your doing, but I feel for these people who get conned into d/l -ing these useless programs for a problem that these idiots make in the first place and up paying £/$’s for, I just glad i come across this forum so i could sort this out.

And to all these companies who think there clever by conning the general public, Its not and hope to god you get the pain and agony that you cause everyone else four fold over.

Rhinoxeros
#157. August 5th, 2008, at 1:43 PM.

This Program is spyware not a virus. for all you online noobs who are wondering what you should do here’s a simple tip. learn how your computer works first and foremost. if you went to buy a car would you trust the salesman and just buy the car or would you take it for a test drive first. any moron who pays for anything outside of ebay is exactly that a moron and does not need to own a computer as far as i am concerned. all ad ware and spyware and some viruses and trojans can be manually removed by searching your windows system 32 folder for oddly named files. usually .ocx files infect your online experience as they are browser hook objects. for the ones that work offline they are usually related to a cmd.exe process. these you go to your registry and search for anything oddly named inside of your run and run once folders inside of hklm and hkcu. the only virus out that needs a tactical approach to remove is the vundo virus. if you like a challenge this is the one that test you however a good old disk wipe can beat this one in its trax. in order to not obtain these things you need to learn how the internet works. number 1 thing to know if your running windows is that internet explorer is a major target for beginning coders to test theyre ideas on. for extreme noobs you need to change your default browser to firefox or safari. this will instantly reduce your chances of catching something by about 90%. next thing is your browsing habits if your some nasty perv who goes to big butts are us .com well then you deserve what ever the site gives you as you need a girlfriend more then an antivirus program. also and lastly google is your friend if a program you did not install on your computer just pops up one day saying this or that. google the name of the program or whatever error its displaying believe it or not your not the only one in the world with a computer and the chances that someone else has gotten the same thing is very likely usually they leave tips how they fixed whatever or give advice like me. heed these words and you should find out that the internet is a vast playground for all. ok GRUBBTEKK forever

Mark
#158. August 5th, 2008, at 3:00 PM.

Go to Start,Help & Support,undo changes or restore software,
then restore software to a date before you started experiencing problems.

Jay
#159. August 5th, 2008, at 3:18 PM.

look, here is the solution

www.malwarebytes.com

download it and scan and remove, thats all, you dont need to search files nd know your computer in and out. this solution works, its effective and does it in timely matter.

If you want this spyware gone, click on that link and install, scan and remove. thats it. it works.

Angel
#160. August 6th, 2008, at 12:12 PM.

I have this annoying thing on my computer as well. i did mostly everything suggested above & i’ve managed to remove the j0e files & restore my desktop. However, my Internet Explorer is still blocked & my computer is still running fairly slowly. Can someone please help me?!!!!! This thing has hijacked my internet browser & i want it back.

Kenneth
#161. August 6th, 2008, at 12:33 PM.

This was my experience with the “VISTA Antivirus 2008″, but I guess the procedures will be about the same with the XP variant.

I had some serious problems getting rid of this one, I have no experience cleaning up registries etc, but with the help of some programs I finally made it. I got the trojan through a torrent btw, it had bundled itself with the program’s install file.

In short I googled and read lots of instructions other people gave on the same problem (just google “Vista Antivirus 2008?), applying whatever was relevant to the symptoms I had. I downloaded Spy Hunter 3, Malwarebytesnti-Malware and Hijack This!, all freeware programs I think (and which should be quite easy to find by googling), and used these to battle the bundle of trojans I had.

The most efficient program by far was Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and it was also that program which was recommended in most of the threads I googled. Hijack This! must be used with extreme caution by people like me (laymen), but there’s a lot of help on their forum and you will also find relevant instructions by googling. If you look carefully at the log it creates though (and the information it gives on all hits), you should be able to spot some of the entries/changes made by the trojans (like the changing of IE homepage, changes in Windows privacy). I think you might have to register Spy Hunter 3 to be able to remove the problems it finds, so you either have to pay some bucks there or just do without it (or find it as a torrent).

Since the trojans “removedy taskbar and two of my drives (and the ability to use regedit amongst others), I downloaded some premade “scriptsr reg-files to give me back those functionalities. (You can also do this manually, if you know what you’re doing.) Google Vista Antivirus 2008 and their file names, and you should probably get the correct files. The files names are “taskmanager.regnd “reg_enable.vbsYou probably have to run “reg_enableirst, to be able to run the taskmanager reg-file.

You might also have to do this in Windows Safemode, in case the trojans block out the antispyware (I didn’t though). All in all it takes a lot of patience and googling (and downloading of the freeware “Malwarebytes Anti-Malware”), but if you’re determined enough you can break it.. :)
Good luck!

PS.
I hope the russian developers of these scams/trojans burn forever, preferably somewhere very hot.

Prowler
#162. August 6th, 2008, at 1:20 PM.

Thank you Jay, www.malwarebytes.com really worked and it uninstalled XP antivirus. Everyone who wants to get rid of XP Antivirus 2008 JUST DOWNLOAD malwarebytes at www.malwarebytes.com, scan and remove the infected objects. This really works!!!

yakk
#163. August 6th, 2008, at 2:48 PM.

download spybot search and destroy, worked for me

didinka
#164. August 6th, 2008, at 4:20 PM.

guys its very easy to get rid of the antivirus2008! I installed SuperAntiSpyware . com and it found the virus and put it in quarantine and then I just deleted it from qurantine!!! Its free for home users!!!!! Im so happy!!!!!! :)

Dan
#165. August 6th, 2008, at 9:11 PM.

Downloaded and ran malware. It removed the devious xpantivirus, but now I get a RUNDLL alert box that says:

C:Program Files\Internet Explorer\SETUPAPI.Dll
module could not be found.

Installed MS service pack 3, installed IE 7, still pops up. Any suggestions?

yasmin
#166. August 7th, 2008, at 3:13 AM.

Thank you to Katie in post #39 - www.malwarebytes.com worked! It took just about 45 minutes to run the full detailed scan and it found 63 files that were infected - there were trojans, rogue, adware, etc.. After rebooting, I was able to get the control panel, change the screen saver, and the Xp antivirus 2008 is no longer listed on the list of programs when I go to un-install. I ran the malwarebytes scan a second time, which only took about 8 minutes and there was nothing detected. I think it’s all gone. And thank you to everyone who has taken time to post the good and the bad of all the attempts…it helps to guide those trying to fix things after you. Too bad that Norton cannot detect this virus…so it does me no good to regularly schedule scans with Norton - I have to purchase malwarebytes as well?

Good luck to everyone still trying to exorcise this virus from their PC’s.

Jennifer
#167. August 7th, 2008, at 12:07 PM.

Same thing happened to me, and I ended up yelling at my husband because I thought he was clicking on naughty sights…Turns out you can get it from anywhere! We paid the $50, downloaded what I thought we needed then another thing popped up and said I needed to upgrade to XP Anti-Virus 2009! Refused to do it and kept getting warnings that something was trying to take my credit card info…Can’t get ahold of the “company” that sells this anti-virus BS, so I called bank and disputed the charges, downloaded malwarebytes, and TA-DA! My computer is just fine…BTW, didn’t have to pay for the downloadable version. You can if you want, and that way you don’t have to manually request a scan, but what I did worked great. Takes a while, but totally worth it!

Marty
#168. August 7th, 2008, at 6:16 PM.

I got this about a month ago. I never bought into the scam but it quickly brought my computer to a stand still. Trend micro, my “protector” knew nothing of this problem and requested all kinds of tricks for me to preform. Which as my computer got slower and slower became impossible. Finally in frustration I reformatted the entire hard drive and now my computer works better then it has for a long time. this is not for the faint of heart but I had good back-ups and all drivers and program disks. it still took 2 days.

Tokiyo
#169. August 7th, 2008, at 7:54 PM.

#143 woot its work..

Mitch
#170. August 7th, 2008, at 7:57 PM.

Update:

I called the support number I listed above and complained that I had been tricked into purchasing this software and gave them my order number and requested a refund. They emailed me asking for “more information” as to the technical problems I was having with the software. I emailed back and told them that the “technical problem” was that this software was itself spyware, NOT anti-spyware, and that there were numerous website forums indicating this. I am happy to report that the billing host has issued me a refund. So THEY might at least be an honest company. I hope they will drop www.av-xp-2008.com as a merchant, and that no other billing host will pick them up.

Michael
#171. August 7th, 2008, at 7:58 PM.

Buyer’s beware!!!!I would not recommend this irriatating “antivirus” software to anyone. It will not allow you to even check your e-mail much less do anything else. Antivirus 2008 is a form of malware and it should not be installed into any working computer.

To get rid of it go to SuperAntiSpyWare.com. This package will not only delete the antivirus 2008 software package that might have got dumped into someone’s system without their knowledge, but any software packages that Antivirus 2008 that claimed were viruses and spyware will remain intact.

Gwen
#172. August 7th, 2008, at 10:36 PM.

Thanks, John (#44). I’d recommend following his instructions. It worked! Really fast and easy.

Trent
#173. August 8th, 2008, at 1:24 AM.

Thank God I finally got rid of this gotdamned spyware called Antivirus XP 2008 and it was all becuase I downloaded Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware which really helped and was a life saver.

Annie
#174. August 8th, 2008, at 5:34 AM.

I’m on a HP Windows Vista desktop.

I stupidly got this onto my computer too, and freaked out, seeing as I had had to reformat my computer a mere 4 months ago. If I didn’t learn a lesson the first time, I sure did this time. But like so many, I got it by downloading some codec in an attempt to watch a tv series.

I’m not computer-savvy at all, so after a bunch of googling, I realized that lots of people mentioned Superantispyware. I did a quick? some sort of scan with it, it helped, but not completely.

Then finally, figuring I might as well, I tried Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. I was skeptical at first, but it seriously worked! I’m doing a 2nd complete scan as I type this. But after the first scan and rebooting as per instructions, I still got the blue screen, but I was able to change the desktop background, though I had to go to a picture I wanted and manually set it as desktop background.

I’m currently following the instructions and screenshots from people by checking the registry, and searching for those file names, and I haven’t found anything else. Hope all goes well from here on! Thanks to everyone!

One last thing, does anyone know, how one can be truly sure that this XP Antivirus 2008 is gone? I’m not the greatest computer person… Is there any signs? Or signs that it IS still on my computer?

Winger
#175. August 9th, 2008, at 5:01 PM.

Use Spybot Search and Destroy. Took 20 minutes and zero costs.

neethu
#176. August 9th, 2008, at 5:29 PM.

Hi John (#44)

Thanks for the excellent bit of advise. Followed it step by step (our virus filenames were slightly different)and finally our system is back up after 4hrs of battling the virus:) cheers!!

Trojan Mule
#177. August 9th, 2008, at 11:52 PM.

As per micheal
I downloaded Antivirus 2008 in a codec pack and holy s%*t. I tried all the removal instructions (see top) and got it back so it was just redirecting my internet browser every now and then (so i could go back and eventually bring up the forums) but i just couldn’t get rid of it or delete those dll flies. I paid $50 for Spyware Doctor which found some but didn’t fix it. I got Malwarebytesnti-Malware which is free and found more of it (got back c: drive but didn’t stop the Internet Explorer Pop-ups).
I then tried SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition which found it all( and actually called the virus by name) and seems to have fixed it ( 3 days and counting ) but I’m going to wait a little longer before I access my bank account :-\
By the looks of it this Spyware is constantly changing and improving itself so I hope this works for you.

Jane
#178. August 10th, 2008, at 1:11 PM.

Thank you John #44. Everything you said worked!! Wish we would have seen this about four hours ago.

Gail W
#179. August 10th, 2008, at 4:11 PM.

Hey folks,
I have been up and at it for 12 hours, and
finally took John’s advice and did the deletes
and rebooted.
I see some of us on XP still have the desktop
issue, and cannot clear the desktop=background - wallpaper problem.
I tried what ASTEVE #143 suggested, but right
click on desktop only gives me DISPLAY, and
now I cannot see anything on my
Control Panel - Display except Themes,
Appearance, Settings.
HOW CAN XP users fix Desktop
and Display options??
I am exhausted while preparing for
a job interview.
Please help…. Gail !

Gail W
#180. August 10th, 2008, at 4:26 PM.

From Gail again….
Is anybody getting Microsoft Explorer 7
emails??
I am so loaded with Spam, this is just
exhausting.
Any help on the XP desktop/wallpaper
fix??
Sure could use some good news that
I can fix it.
Thanks…. Gail

Joe
#181. August 11th, 2008, at 2:03 AM.

Wow! This little thing is really annoying!!
I wonder why those developers of this kind of malware won’t use their knowledge and expertise for the good of humanity instead!
I was just having the same problems as most of you here, but with two computers!!
The good thing though is that I won:) Thanks God!!
I just used the malwarebytes from www.malwarebytes.com, scanned and removed the infected objects. This really works!!!
My computers are now back to normal, I hope.
Thanks for all the knowlege shared in this post.

John (#44) Thanks for the tips!

user
#182. August 11th, 2008, at 2:41 AM.

use spybot search and destroy, update to the latest version and scan then delete it, make sure u scan at least twice

asteve
#183. August 11th, 2008, at 2:43 PM.

Sorry what I suggested didn’t work for you but, as other people have mentioned, this piece of s**t, seems to be getting worse. If you go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and click on the custom button, you will get a list of updates that microsoft recommends you download. One is Microsoft malware July 2008. As I still had a few minor probs with some other software (non-microsoft), registry related I think, I downloaded it last week and ran it. It seems to clear all the odd little bits that Malwarebytes/spybot doesn’t. Hope this helps.

Art
#184. August 11th, 2008, at 6:17 PM.

Hi, I have pretty much defeated this annoying virus except for one last piece. When I search on Yahoo or Google certain clicks cause my internet to redirect and link to random search websites. It does not happen all the time, only on certain searches.

Does anyone know a fix for this?

michal
#185. August 12th, 2008, at 1:54 AM.

I tried a lot of stuff, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware worked (the free version did it).

Note that somebody else on this forum pointed this out before.

Manish
#186. August 12th, 2008, at 8:30 AM.

Answer #44 is the perfect answer.

Thanks to the Author.

Ray
#187. August 12th, 2008, at 9:12 AM.

After spending a whole day trying to fix this myself…downloaded 3 different softwares. Tried to restore, tried everything I could think of. Then one of the programs I downloaded to fix the problem came up in another programs scan as spyware! I gave up, and contacted McAfee. Cost $80 to have a live agent take remote control of my computer. He used 4 programs (things I never heard of like “icesword”) to find all the places this program hides in, and 45 minutes later it was gone! My desktop was a blur of action. If I knew what I was doing, it would have taken me many times as long to do the fix. I kick myself in the butt for spending a whole day playing with this when I could have spent the $80 and been done with it. Hopes this helps!

Katrina
#188. August 12th, 2008, at 5:50 PM.

Thanks, Michal #184 and whoever recommended it first, the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware did the trick!

Ash
#189. August 12th, 2008, at 7:43 PM.

Hey guys! This is the program you need to remove this virmin: Malwarebytesnti-Malware. Download it free from download.com. Run it as free trial. Believe me, tried to get rid of Antivirus XP with spyware doctor; spoybot SD; Bitdefender- No success. Only this program removed it perfectly! (By the way, i got my information from another thread, which led me to the program)

Good luck!

Sylvia
#190. August 12th, 2008, at 7:43 PM.

I also had this virus and removed it with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware! It did the trick and I also removed all the extra toolbars that were installed on my browser like the winamp and aol toolbars, I heard they can have viruses attached to them. I glad you have instructions on how to remove it manually!

Tailor
#191. August 12th, 2008, at 9:14 PM.

As everybody knows thisis a really nasty piece of crap. And in this case Google may NOT be your friend. I was visiting a friend last week, who unfortunately lives 600 miles away, and wanted to check my emails.

He seemed to have Google as his Home Page, with a Google Tip telling him to install this shit. Fortunately he had not done so. I couldn’t do anything from IE and kept getting messages about Trojans etc.

Finally I went into Internet Options and changed his home page to Use Blank. This enabled me to access the Net. I suspected this crap was not legit as one word was not spelled correctly, which is usually a giveaway, but didn’t have time to do a proper search. Gues I’ll now have to try to help him from a distance.

Incidentally, some of these nasties seem to duplicate themselves in the Registry with slightly different names, all of which have the same properties. DyFuCA comes to mind as one of them.

Finn
#192. August 13th, 2008, at 4:34 AM.

After reading through every post, simple comments:

1) I have this on my system, and Malwarebytes anti-malware seems to remove enough to get computer functioning (as many have said). In combo with other free (or paid software), even more can get fixed.

2) Go to CNET’s download.com to find legitmate free and paid anti virus software and download from there.

3) Malwarebyte’s antivirus did not remove everything, because the virus changes the names of files. So your solution, or files to delete, may differ from the next persons.

4) Those saying simply “run adaware” or “system restore”, keep in mind we usually try the easy options first. The virus will be slightly diferent for each, and renders the simple options impossible. In my case it prevented doing a system restore, which is often option number 1 for me.

5) I’ve also used Spybot Search and Destroy, various registry cleaners in combination with malwarebytes, but problems remain, including being able to access google, but not google owned blogger. Access seems to come and go.

5) Post #44 seems to have worked for many, so I am trying that. Often the dll files won’t delete, so I am taking someone’s suggestion to rename them first, then try delete after the reboot.

6) Re-installing op system, after saving data may save you time, though you may lose certain things.

7) My sister got this virus, took it to I believe a major electronics retailer (Best something or other), who promised to backup her data and fix her system for $500 plus. Absurd.

8) Be careful of the posts on here that say, “Try this software” with a link, suggesting it can easily be removed. This virus mutates the names of files and even good software like the Malawarebytes mentioned by many posts here will not get it all out for every person. Before listening to someone, notice how many people say it worked, then check a trusted source like CNET (at downloads.com) or Wiki

9) Someone posted a link to “wiki-security.com/antivirus…” Be aware that some firms toss “wiki” in the name, and design their page to look like Wikipedia, when they are not. The link mentioned in the above comments posted such a link… it’s a commercial vender.

10) It’s interesting that most of the windows antivirus 2008 removal pages mention buying Spyware Doctor, which only documents the files for free. It makes you wonder if there is a link between software sellers and virus creators. We should wonder less, investigate more. How is it that so many “unrelated” internet pages all mention Spyware Doctor (in itself legit), which, as designed, will not remove the virus unless you pay? My conspiracy side coming out.

Good luck.

John
#193. August 13th, 2008, at 5:05 AM.

Many thanks system restore worked first time

Ash
#194. August 13th, 2008, at 6:05 AM.

Download a programmme called hijackthis it will show u all the files that look corrupted or infected. then simply delete the files from your computer in system32. The files are also named above in the article.

Grace H
#195. August 13th, 2008, at 8:10 AM.

I can’t get rid of this stupid thing!!!

I was changing security systems, and while the new thing was downloading, this popped up, and cuz it had the windows logo, I thought it was ok. Now my pc is so slow!! It took me an hour to check 6 emails this afternoon!!

I can get the whole blue background fixed, but when I log back on, I still have a blue wallpaper and missing tabs in properties.

I mean, who does this to people?!?!?! It is so frustrating!!!

Wildman
#196. August 13th, 2008, at 8:46 AM.

I noticed that Gail W is still having issues with the desktop and not being able to change it. I also caught the virus 3 days ago and Im in the process of removing it. I got it from opening some pirated antivirus serials document. Here is your fix Gail.

Open up Start/Run and type in regedit

In HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System, there should be both the NoDispBackgroundPage and NoDispScrSavPage Items…?
Because both my Background Page & Screen Saver Page were missing under Display Properties, both values there had to be MODIFIED.
When Right-clicking on Modify (applies to both) you have to reset the value from 1 to 0

Let me know if it work as Im still in the process of recovering. I also chose the malwarebytes way of solving the issue.

Earl Handy
#197. August 13th, 2008, at 12:17 PM.

I would like to know how we can file a class action suite against the company who created this scam; you could count me in. I was able to get ride of it by running msconfig and turning it off then deleting the responsible files. My problem is how to restore my themes and screensavers? This company caused damage to my computer and I want restitution!

anencephalic
#198. August 13th, 2008, at 12:53 PM.

You sell it and tell how to remove it on the same page. My head hurts.

ts
#199. August 13th, 2008, at 1:56 PM.

anencephalic
.. what are you talking about? this page don’t sell the spyware …

Gail W
#200. August 13th, 2008, at 4:20 PM.

Thank You WILDMAN #196 !!
Many hugs and kisses for your help.
In Register Edit,
I did get to Current Version, but needed
to go down 1 more level to folder Policies.
Inside that, in “System” was the
NoDispScrSavPage and
NoDispBackgroundPage.
I right clicked in, found Modify and
yes changed 1 to 0, leaving the Hexdecimal
option alone.
I then opened my display and alas!
there were all my tabs again. They
all working and I am grateful!
You are amazing WildMan.
Many warm thanks for remembering to
get me the help I needed.
Great Job…….. Gail !

Peter B
#201. August 14th, 2008, at 8:23 AM.

Thanks so much for help. Malwarebytes worked a treat for me.
A slow and painful death is too good for the scum that perpetrate these viruses

Dennis
#202. August 14th, 2008, at 7:26 PM.

I had checked the downloaded file ahead of time with Kaspersky Antivirus and it found no problems. I got rid of it by starting Windows in Safe Mode, logging in as administrator and deleting the files then rebooting as normal

Bill
#203. August 15th, 2008, at 10:15 PM.

Download Malwarebytes and run the scan. The problem will go away. I lost my restore points, couldn’t change my wallpaper, and kept getting the annoying message. Malwarebytes removed it in 10 minutes.

Before I removed the virus, I wanted to do a Who Is search on their URL. Maybe we can get some info about who these sorry pieces of crap are.

If you run a Who Is on them, please post.

Ferndanzog
#204. August 16th, 2008, at 12:30 AM.

Post 44
FTW

My file had a different name:
lphcjdcj0ev9j

Anonomous
#205. August 16th, 2008, at 5:54 PM.

A total VIRUS! Do not download/buy anything to do with Antivirus XP it uses many SCARE tactics to almost make you buy it. Please search out professional help on this, but do not try and modify it in any way!

bob
#206. August 16th, 2008, at 6:31 PM.

help! seems i’m the latest hit. would really appreciate some help as i’ve spent the whole day trying to get it sorted. have tried about 6 virus scanners (including avira antivir, microsoft onecare and super ad aware). all seem to find files and delete them but i’m still getting the red shield (near the clock) saying “you have a security problem!” (grrrr!) and then the pop up to scan using this antivirus 2008.

don’t know enough about registry to go into that manually but i’ve tried some of the suggestions above (as in #44) but couldn’t find those filenames. also seem to have ANY system restore points to go back to!

help! (please)

bob
#207. August 16th, 2008, at 6:54 PM.

doh! just my luck… the last programme i tried worked perfectly… so if you happen to read this from the bottom up (unlike me!) - use Malware!

appreciate this ‘forum’ being here though as i would probably have ended up formatting my pc from not knowing what else to do.

Bill
#208. August 17th, 2008, at 2:47 AM.

I couldn’t find the ‘xp antivirus 2008′ files anywhere on my computer to remove them. I was so frustrated I almost paid for spy hunter to remove it. Then it occurred to me that spy hunter is probably the makers of the ‘antivirus’ file, so f them, im not giving them one cent.

I eventually found the answer on You Tube! There is a program called, “malware bytes.” It is a free download and free trial scan. First one is free! It found the xp antivirus 2008 and got rid of it. I then restarted my computer. Everything is as good as new with no residual problems! Try it!

Henry
#209. August 17th, 2008, at 3:02 AM.

Got this well on a message board for some russian news website dont recall clicking on anything it just came up within seconds i knew i was screwed was like 30 C degrees here i was sweating bullets was gonna format but did #44

Not So Helpless
#210. August 17th, 2008, at 3:29 AM.

Katie #39 ur a bloody legend!!
Malwarebytes works like a charm

gary
#211. August 17th, 2008, at 11:15 AM.

malwarebytes worked for me i already had spybot and adaware it still got through though

these people are sad loosers with no friends and too much time :)

I got it when i clicked on some sort of update which looked to be from microsoft !

Andrew
#212. August 17th, 2008, at 3:25 PM.

Well I was suckered. The hackers caught me at a weak moment. I downloaded $130+ of fake software. Then Kaboom!!! I tried entering task manager in the run box but the virus blocked me out. I tried the msconfig in the same box. But when I choose the start-up tab and tried to disable everything it said I needed to be in the administrator mode(blocked again). During this time I had many pop-ups, infected screens I even had trouble accessing the internet. It wouldn’t let me download anything i.e. virus protection etc.. I then tried a system restore (blocked again) Then I tried restarting my computer in safe mode and system restore again (blocked again). In this mode I tried removing all icons, files etc.. But it kept coming back duplicating itself. I tried loading my XP disc and wiping my computer. But it wouldn’t allow me,
I exited the system entirely. Re=-entered into my MAC side changed the partitions to wipe out the windows. Thank God for two things my MAC and off-site data storage. Otherwise this virus had my me in it’s grip.

I contacted AMEX to let them know. However I wasn’t too happy with their response. I told them to flag this fake company. However there doesn’t seem to be much recourse. The credit card company has my money and so do the hackers (organized crime syndicate). AMEX apparently doesn’t flag companies. You will notice on your bill that it lists it in EURO under the description “PV CHEW SL, PALMA DE MALLORCA” 37,27 EUROPEAN UNION EURO” .

The Amex operator told me to cancel my card and a new one will arrive in a week or two. However, If I wish I can report it to the Fraud Department which of course isn’t open on the weekend. SIGH I wonder if the hackers take the weekend off too?

I hope they catch these guys and throw the book at them. Really bad Karma. They are ripping people off all over the world!!!! Bastards.

Good news is my computer is working well now….however I am a little poorer this month. :(

M-Dawg
#213. August 17th, 2008, at 5:44 PM.

Son of a bitch, I finally got hit with a virus and of course I end up paying the 50 bucks to get Antivirus XP 2008 on my computer. Sure, the program “cleaned up” my computer and allowed me to restore my screen wall paper but it slowed my computer down to nothing. One of my wife’s classmates told me that Antivirus is the actual problem itself! We wife later called the 1-800 number on my reciept and bitched them out. My wife had to speak to a head supervisor by the name of Kristine Jonnes, please call her yourself and give her a piece of your mind. 1-800-467-1077 (USA)
After about 20 MIN of complaining on the phone we did get a refund of our money. When I called Visa to tell them about the faulty program/virus/transaction, she told me right away that it was a fraudulant scam and that many peolpe had cancellations from that company. I can’t seem to find out more info on the company and I an totally in agreement of a class action lawsuit.
My next step is to try #44’s idea, then try the Malwarebytes to remove this plauge from my computer.

Cynthia Aparicio
#214. August 17th, 2008, at 8:21 PM.

I bought this shit, I’m so mad right now. what I’m scared of now is that I used my credit card. I really hope that they don’t steal my credit card number. I should of know that this was a scam. shit.To those that bought this crap: can anyone tell me if anything happened to their credit card bill? what I mean is that, did any funny business happene?

Cynthia Aparicio
#215. August 17th, 2008, at 8:33 PM.

I agree we should get a class lawsuit. damnit I’m so mad, I’m broke as it is. oh well thank god capital one is being nice about it.

karen
#216. August 17th, 2008, at 10:27 PM.

August 17, 2008

Hi everyone,

last night I was checking out the olympic scores and all of a sudden
I got some kind of message that my computer had a virus
and then Antivirus 2008 downloaded on my computer.

I went to www.malwrebyte.antimalware
and downloaded, the program scanned my computer
and then the antivirus was gone!!!

(p.s. i found the recommendation on yahoo
i just typed in -how do i get rid of xp antivirus 2008)
and i did not have to purchase anything.

I would of usually went to the Geek squad to take care of.

Thank you!

Bill F
#217. August 17th, 2008, at 10:46 PM.

I just got his virus also, it seems no virus detection program works, if you folks get together to file that suit let me know I’ll jion in!!!

wfisher1210@yahoo.com

Brandon
#218. August 18th, 2008, at 7:36 AM.

Dude I got this and tried following the directions, but its not working for me, it cant find any of these files, and all my task mesanger stuff showed up on a random string of letters and numbers.

TP
#219. August 18th, 2008, at 1:23 PM.

Google should not have let this crap happen,it all seem to show up when the olympic art was added to the google page.Anyway after 3 days of the crap I tried Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware and WOW it fixed everything.Great for them.Now if Microsoft and Google will just find and and prosecute (public execution)these people just maybe some if not all of this kind of crap will stop.

Neal
#220. August 19th, 2008, at 12:19 AM.

I downloaded the coupon printer and with it, the XP 08 “Antivirus” virus. I got rid of it by doing a “System Restore.” 24 hours later, no problems. What’s so hard about that?

Hannah
#221. August 19th, 2008, at 1:08 AM.

I was freaking out because I didn’t know what it was! So before I did anything with it I typed in Antivirus 2008 on google and then found this page! Man was I lucky!

Linda
#222. August 19th, 2008, at 8:00 AM.

All 3 of my ofc computers hit yesterday. Not sure why but what a mess. Thank goodness one of my employees found this site so I can go into the office today and try to fix all this. Like we all aren’t busy enough as it is and now only to have to stop and figure all this out!

Chan
#223. August 19th, 2008, at 10:23 AM.

shlwapi.dll
wininet.dll

I’ve found them through search, but there are so many of them. Also, I got Antivirus XP 2008 one week ago, but the dates when shlwapi and wininet files were created/modified in my computer range from 2006 -2008.

So my questions are,

1) Is it really okay to delete all these things? Aren’t they necessary files?

2) What happens if I delete them? (e.g., the speed of computer operation goes up)

Thanks.

Carmelo Lisciotto
#224. August 19th, 2008, at 11:36 AM.

good comments.

Carmelo Lisciotto

harvey
#225. August 19th, 2008, at 6:41 PM.

re-boot and hit F8. click start then run. type msconfig. go to startup tab. find the 2 pieces of shite next to eachother with a name like ll94569fshfgsg blah blah. untick the boxes then click apply. re boot as normal and the shite will not auto run. go to my computer. go to c drive. go to program files. find the same shite with ll94569fsh blah. open it and delete the exe files and as many others as you can. now that it cannot run, boot as normal. go to www.pc-tools.com and download spywaredoctor. install and run it. it will find xp antivirus 2008 and fuck it off for free. go to stephengould.com and download cleanup and run it. its fuckin ace. by now you should be free. you HAVE to log in with F8 and turn off the autorun first because its an option in the settings it does not give you. uninstall does not work and it appears to wipe your restore points? i got rid of this way. good luck dudes.

Kris
#226. August 20th, 2008, at 12:11 AM.

How do you people not get it??? The customer service will never get ahold of you because the program is NOT LEGIT.. its A FAKE, there is no such program as xp
antivirus. It is a piece of MALWARE/TROJAN/WHATEVER designed to Look like a virus scan, Not actually be a virus scan.. It is a total scam, it is about as useful as having a popup with an animation that tells you that you have tons of viruses and asks you for $50 to clean them up..

good
#227. August 20th, 2008, at 2:02 PM.

I tried microsoft onlive free trial …..worked great !!!!!!

agie
#228. August 20th, 2008, at 3:17 PM.

Hello John
Post # 44

I would like to try your procedures but I can’t follow it correctly. Honestly, I am not very good in computer but just like you & the rest the antivirus xp 2008 was automatically loaded on my computer and I want to get this off out of my PC.

I really don’t know where will I go and what is the correct word to type on how to delete it. I’ve noticed we do not have the same name/file use in antivirus. Should i use the file name that what was exactly loaded on my computer?

I’ve tried to destroy the wallpaper /screensavers that appears on my PC but when i clicked the start => menu and type the “Gpedit.msc”, it didn’t accept.

I am BEGGING for your help to please post the complete & detailed command step by step so I can easily follow the instructions to make it free & get off this ridiculous anti virus xp 2008 threats.

Looking forward for your response. Thank you in advance for you kind help.

sara
#229. August 20th, 2008, at 6:43 PM.

i cant believe ppl actually buy this program!! it pops out of nowhere and ppl pull out thier credit card!!Legit software never pop ups and ask you to buy it! i have a permanant soluton,..forget windows its all crap..buy a MAC..it doesnt have ANY viruses,i was on google and antivirus 2008 came up and i closed it and i didnt get avirus because Mac doesnt have any viruses,i never have to worry about buy antisoftware every year or running scans everyday..MAC maybe expensive but aleast i dont have to take it in for repair all the time or worry about viruses..so buy a APPLE/MAC its worth it!!!

Joe
#230. August 20th, 2008, at 10:41 PM.

I was so upset when this blasted thing appeared on my laptop and found this website. I thought about removing it manually, but thanks to katie #39 I found an EASY way. www.Malwarebytes.com was the solution for me and it worked on my HP 64bit vista system. Whoever sent this malicious program is foiled again!!!! Down with malicious hackers!

Alan
#231. August 21st, 2008, at 9:31 AM.

I was prevented from deleting this program or using system restore after it hijacked my computer. A lot of folks have recommended this free program which eliminated the problem nicely -
www.malwarebytes.com
Someone also suggested disputing the charge on your credit card. The only problem with that is most credit card companies will not investigate charges below a certain dollar amount as it’s not cost effective. In the case of the credit card company I work for it’s $50 and Antivirus has an initial charge of $49.95 - smart bastards. These crooks get to keep the money, your credit card writes it off and you (or another credit card customer) will pay for it with a higher APR.

Torin
#232. August 21st, 2008, at 10:33 AM.

MACs DO have viruses, they just don’t get as widespread because the number of MAC users compared to PCs are like 100 - 1 or more.

Benjamin
#233. August 21st, 2008, at 3:51 PM.

Hey everyone, XP AV 2008 auto installed on my computer(not the first time, last time I had to wipe the HDD and reinstall windows) I did not click anything that would allow it to be installed. I followed the instruction to remove, and my desktop background still has the damn thing about having viruses on my comp, it has disable the my ability to change the background and screensaver, so I’m just wondering if there is a way to get rid of that w/out wiping my comp again. Thanks.

daniel
#234. August 22nd, 2008, at 2:29 AM.

I have the xp2008antivirus and serching the web i have not found a solution . does anyone really have a cure?

dummies
#235. August 22nd, 2008, at 5:07 AM.

you people are too dumb to breathe.

you dumb people are the reason hackers make these scams.

WHY IN THE HELL WOULD YOU PAY THE HACKERS MONEY AFTER THEY INFECTED YOUR COMPUTER????!!!!

This one has to be my favorite:

“Sure, the program “cleaned upy computer and allowed me to restore my screen wall paper but it slowed my computer down to nothing. One of my wife’s classmates told me that Antivirus is the actual problem itself!”

duhhhhhh… REALLY? Ya think so? Wow, it’s like a crazy conspiracy or something! (drool)

I am also staring in incredulous awe at the lot of you who said you actually called the company and complained. YOU CALLED A FRAUDULENT FAKE COMPANY FULL OF HACKERS TO COMPLAIN OVER THE PHONE! What did you expect? A refund?!?! yeeeeesh.

okay, some simple steps to follow.

1. Get a brain.
2. Do not pay money for virus removal software because there are free ones everywhere, and in my experience they do a better job anyway
3. Do not give your credit card number to people who infect your computer with self-executing trojans!!! (amazingly, some people don’t know this. i guess you can’t teach common sense)
4. Go to majorgeeks.com and download these (free) programs:

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
CCleaner
Avira Antivirus
Ad-Aware SE with VS2 Plug-In
Spybot Search & Destroy
SpywareBlaster

5. Update all these to present, Immunize, Scan For Problems, Scan For Issues (do Full Scans).

6. Remove the unwanted files!!!

7. Get a brain for next time.

rick
#236. August 22nd, 2008, at 2:23 PM.

definitely the malwarebytes program from comment #231. downloaded the file in a couple minutes and scanned the computer in 10 mins. after scan completed everything was back to normal.

archana
#237. August 22nd, 2008, at 2:41 PM.

I have never been so mad! I was online and all of a sudden this program was loading on my computer! It kept telling me that I had terriable issues. I clicked on my Norton and scanned and it came up as no issues. BUT, I can not get this thing off my computer. Folks do not buy this thing. I did not buy this, it was loading up and I could not stop IT…/p>

steve pooter
#238. August 22nd, 2008, at 3:23 PM.

ditto above man, for your own sake anytime a pop up appears, here is the best advice, close it. and 2nd, while your looking on the web here trying to find a solution, be care ful who you listen to and who’s shit you download to help ‘fix’ your problem. And any of you that actually paid for this, amazing. Sure makes me tempted….

Mac
#239. August 23rd, 2008, at 3:08 AM.

Hi All,

I had the same bloody problem with this hoax antivirus program. Tried every program possible to remove but to no avail. Until I found (by pure luck) a program written to remove this win 2008 antivrus pest called “roguefix’. I have it with me and if you require a copy, you are welcome to contact me.

Coyote
#240. August 23rd, 2008, at 4:39 AM.

You all can’t get ahold of these people because they gave you the virus in the first place. It is 100% scam. Then they actually have the gall to bill you to remove a virus they planted. What’s worse is that they pocket your money and don’t actually remove the virus. Remove it using these steps, but in the six machines I have worked on with this virus the best way was a format and reinstall of Windows.

Peter
#241. August 23rd, 2008, at 10:56 PM.

I downloaded and installed Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Works like a charm. All clean and running smootly. Thanks for the advice.

raj
#242. August 24th, 2008, at 4:47 AM.

guys i removed this one use avg it will clear this in no time it doesn’t even create any problem there after

bruce
#243. August 24th, 2008, at 11:24 AM.

This virus has gotten smarter. It blocks access to sites that have the malwarebytes program. Also blocks trend micro site and several news sites that mention the virus.

john
#244. August 24th, 2008, at 7:47 PM.

i downloaded and installed the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. it worked great, it fixed the problem, look back at message 231 for info.

Sneaker
#245. August 24th, 2008, at 7:56 PM.

Got the XPantivirus2008shit and tried both avira antivir and Malware to deal with it.

Although i suspect avira antivir will work against it, my scanning process got stuck at 99.8% on a certain file with a long name, so for me, it didnt get rid of the virus. Malware however worked great, as man has said before me, although the scan didnt take 10 min for me, more like 2+ hours. Anyways, i’d advice u to use that program.

ram
#246. August 25th, 2008, at 12:31 PM.

what is the customer care no???????????

Addison
#247. August 25th, 2008, at 9:58 PM.

I had two machines in my office with this virus. It changed the system so that I cold only do a software restore. It removed my backups, removed the ability to change the desktop, but worse of all it was installed with other viruses. The other viruses we sending out spam

Will
#248. August 26th, 2008, at 12:01 AM.

Like #243 said, it’s not allowing me to access websites that would allow me to download malware to solve the problem. I tried #44, but the files had different names, and the second one would not delete when I tried to “Run” it with .exe…is there a way to directly download malwarebytes w/o going to that website? Restore didn’t work for me either b/c the bastards got rid of my previous days’ memory. Please help!

kostas
#249. August 26th, 2008, at 2:04 AM.

Everything in my pc is stuffed up and I can’t get rid of this damn virus. I cannot install any other antivirus or spyware because I cannot fully save anything let alone run it. Everything I try to save gets saved on my pc, but empty- therefore I cannot run it. HEEEEEELP please.

M5
#250. August 26th, 2008, at 11:10 AM.

Have had this virus a couple days now - same story as everyone else. Did not pay the extortion fee though as it was immediately clear to me it was a virus/malware. Tried several remedies without success before finding this page - downlaoded malwarebytes program just now and was in the middle of the scan when the laptop crashed. So now back to the slow reboot and will try again. More later…

cst
#251. August 26th, 2008, at 3:01 PM.

oh, and for you guys who “got it” with one simple scan. You didnt get it. There is a whole lot more to this package than you think. And for the jerk who is calling all of you stupid, grow up.

bequi
#252. August 26th, 2008, at 7:27 PM.

i been hearing a lot of things about XP Antivirus 2008 , and what i can say is, its a big, Big, BiG, B-I-G scum. people create virus so there anti virus will be on sale, its pretty common around us.
what i can suggest to many internet users dont be fooled with anything FREE… dont open email that you dont where in hell it come from-

Rick
#253. August 26th, 2008, at 8:19 PM.

I’ve listed the procedures below for fixing this issue on PCs. We’ve had 12 PCs come in the last week with the same one.

1. Install Spybot 1.5.2 and Adaware 2008 (this version catches all nasties. Remove previous versions if installed as 2007 and SE don’t get everything).
2. Update and scan.
3. Reboot if required
4. Run a full virus scan if they have virus scan software installed. If not install AVG 8 Free. It may complain that spybot is installed as they use the same engine. Remove spybot.
5. Scan and remove.
6. Other things affected: regedit and desktop and screensaver tabs disabled
a. Fix buy running the following:
i. secedit /configure /db reset /cfg “c:\windows\security\templates\setup security.inf” /overwrite
ii. reboot
iii. after reboot run regedit
iv. This stage is a little manual but it will re-enable the missing tabs
1. Browse to HKLM\Users and expand each SID you see there to SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\POLICIES\
2. Delete any keys under this
b. Once these keys have been deleted you will have desktop and screensaver back.
c. Select display properties and see the file used for the background and the screensaver
d. Delete these files, one a BMP and the other a SCR, they should be in \WINDOWS or \SYSTEM32

pat
#254. August 27th, 2008, at 12:55 AM.

had the same problem.
the pop up virus warning on the tray icon just annoying.
removal instructions.
i ended the process and by pressing Ctl+Alt+Del…search the file that is causing it and deleted all file associated with it.
then uninstalled IE. used mozilla now.
no problems so far.

pat
#255. August 27th, 2008, at 12:56 AM.

search for rhc3h4*.* ——–and delete all files with it.

this should do the trick….

regards.

Tayeb Husain
#256. August 27th, 2008, at 3:54 AM.

Your web page continuously “pops-upn my computer and disturbs me almost every minute. I block the pop-up but it does not work. I know you want to sell your product but should you disturb people like this? It is a real nonsense and annoying factor and I request you kindly to help me getting rid of your advertisement. Would you please oblige?

Best regards.

Tayeb Husain

IKE
#257. August 27th, 2008, at 10:18 AM.

Malwarebytes.com

Got the Virus last night - got rid of it this morning thx to Malwarebytes.com

Annie
#258. August 27th, 2008, at 11:43 AM.

Thanks to all that gave advice on this page, yes! using Malwarebytes first would have saved me reloading my friends operating system again, its a brilliant program, no spyware and virus free, even Norton could not stop fully the effects of this lousy malware - so called XP Antivirus 2008, to anyone without a suspicious mind it looks legit so my poor friend downloaded it via email. No system restore no desktop settings no control panel, computer wrecked and slowed to a crawl, took me 4 days to completely clear, thank for the advice on this site, don’t download Spyhunter I thinks its related to xp antivirus. Use Malwarebytes from www.malwarebytes.org and superantispyware both available from a safe site like cnet. Other good advice on other posts on this site.

Rob
#259. August 27th, 2008, at 11:44 AM.

this is a SCAM…dispute ALL Credit Card Charges!!!!!! Do it now!!!!!!

Pissed off with xp anti virus
#260. August 27th, 2008, at 3:18 PM.

YOU HAVE A SECURITY PROBLEM!

jesus. im suffering here, i did not download this and bein an IT novice im having trouble with a few of the instructions, but im not stupid. How did this damn thing get on here?! i went downstairs to make a brew and came back and my pc wont even start up! im sat here on safemode with networking and it still wont leave me alone! hopeful norton can crack this one for me. Im gonna flip my lid in about 20 seconds!

peter the piper
#261. August 27th, 2008, at 4:19 PM.

Just had to clear this on my wifes laptop, yes honestly, it removed any restore points and the computer closed down before I could download anything to get rid of it. I burned Malwarebytes onto a cd, opened her comp in safe mode, ran install from the cd and that cleared it. for good measure I changed from AVG to Avira, which cleared up anything else that got through (virus turned off her firewall as well). Ccleaner removed anything that was left. Hope this may help someone.
Peter

Jasmine
#262. August 27th, 2008, at 8:34 PM.

I am sorry if this sounds like spam , but I had this thing for weeks and found a guy on yahoo answers who removed this for me in under 10 minutes . If you want this removed contact him Dr.bucksnort@yahoo.com

again sorry if this sounds like spam . but this is a honest post

Rod
#263. August 27th, 2008, at 9:47 PM.

I would like to thank everyone, however, I have a not in my status bar which indicates I have virus on my machine. It seems to be functioning well; I’m not sure if the entries/ file are gone or what…so can someone help or answer? I have cleared MOST of the virus out using AVG Anti-Virus. My virus name was Advance Antivirusnd Ultimate Window 2008 one of the same.

The registry does not show any thing out of order…how can I remove any pieces of this virus that remains? How can i identify them or it in my registry. I don’t see anything with the Advance, Antivirus etc…

Akaya

Vanessa
#264. August 27th, 2008, at 9:58 PM.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ruthless One!!!!
Comment #42 Worked for me! I thought I was really screwed since I don’t have access to my “computer geek” anymore (we broke up). So I was pleasantly suprised when I fixed it myself-thanks to you.

alex
#265. August 27th, 2008, at 10:45 PM.

1.In google, search for malwarebytes
2.copy url
3.paste url, not in google because it will redirect you(at least for me)
4.turn off firewall
5.download malwarebytes
6.run quick scan then restart it worked for me

JD
#266. August 28th, 2008, at 1:13 AM.

I have used MalwareBytes to remove the XP Antivirus program successfully several times. You can run a quick scan first, but I had a version which removed the LAN card functionality, thereby removing the ability to update after installation form a flash drive. I was able to use the internet by restarting in safemode with networking support and updating the software. Run a full scan on teh entire drive to remove all of the software as well as the 1 file and 3 registry entries which were stopping the lancard. Good luck…

Dave
#267. August 28th, 2008, at 2:36 AM.

Hey message number 235

You must be a real legend. How about stop being a smart arse and helping people out instead of calling everyone dummies.?

Some day you will require help and we can all tell you to “go fuck your self!!!

zerocool
#268. August 28th, 2008, at 4:18 AM.

My screen constatnly has a sign saying my system is infected an d a pop up teel sme I have 168 viruses.I know this is bullshit but how do I get rid of it.It wont uninstall and my computer is so old that the system restore option is gone a bit funky as well.Its more of a nuisence than anything else,but I really wan trid of it.Help Please.

Fat al
#269. August 28th, 2008, at 9:30 AM.

There’s no way of removing this other than a format, a spyware/malware scanner with remove the program but then you are left with the consequences - backup your files and get the hell out of there!

nolagyrl
#270. August 28th, 2008, at 9:49 AM.

system restore disabled, www.malwarebytes.com worked wonderful, thanks to everyone for sharing.

MAD-IN-USA
#271. August 28th, 2008, at 2:09 PM.

The virus itself originated in Australia, and was delivered to my computer via a phoney FEDEX message, via a compressed file that needed to be unzipped. Now these same australians are trying to sell me a program to remove it. BEWARE. They same people are the villians here, and should be prosecuted.

jen
#272. August 29th, 2008, at 1:11 AM.

go here and do it! it worked for me!! i’m so happy. and you don’t have to buy anything.

jamie
#273. August 29th, 2008, at 2:39 AM.

this virus is soo bad that wont even allow me to visit to anti virus websites to fix it.

i followed what others said here and seems i already removed it from the program files but seems i still have this BSOD and cant go to some sites.

Pls help!

Annoyed
#274. August 29th, 2008, at 12:34 PM.

I found this stupid virus under “rhcragj0e76a”
when I did regedit and run I typed in rhcragj0e76a and there they were.

“B”
#275. August 29th, 2008, at 1:55 PM.

I used 3 different things, becuz one thing seems not to work as I have used several different things on several pc and nothing works 100%.

I first scanned with Symantec and did their manual removal fix, then spypot, then MaleWareBytes antivirus. If you dont have Symantec you probably can scan with any antivirus software, but still do the symantec removal instructions found on their website for this.

BUT I do have one issue that I would like to see if anyone can address. One laptop I am working on has the Blue screen of death when the laptop is left running idle. ANY SUGGESTIONS. I know I could wipe the machine and yes that is the best option BUT not with with this user. He reallllly needs the pc the way it is. Anything…..somebody….help!!!

Jake
#276. August 29th, 2008, at 10:37 PM.

I got this virus and at first couldn’t get to “add/remove” programs but after a little searching I found it and noticed a program called “web video” which I uninstalled and my computer instantly was back to normal. try it.

Mike
#277. August 29th, 2008, at 11:08 PM.

Here is the solution.. first go to the registry and delete the two crappy entries that u see under run like phc74tj0e9dt and one more thing..

then open the task manager and end task for phc74tj0e9dt and other unknown shit ..

you can restore the wallpaper settings through global policies. thats it. the bullshit will be out of your way.. cheezz..

Mike
#278. August 30th, 2008, at 10:44 AM.

God, this thing was so annoying to take off. Even when I did spend the three hours to take it off manually because Malwarebytes and Norton wouldn’t detect it ((Norton actually said that it got rid of it once then a month later BAHM! everthing died)) all my dowloader files are corrupted AFTER I did a system restore.

My computer is fucked, and I really don’t want to deal with it.

By the way, it was really easy to detect this as a false antivirus because there were some verbal, grammical, and spelling errors on the page that tried to get you to buy it.

And, if you do have it on your computer, STOP RESTARTING. Every single time you restart your computer Antivirus XP takes a big bite out of your harddrive and tries to make it so that you don’t have to manually install it but it can install it’s self so it can wreak havoc. I noticed there was a problem when my computer wouldn’t stop rebooting itself.

Lastly, restoring your computer to the time before it had the virus probably won’t work, it didn’t work for me, it just made it so that it was hiding and my attempts to remove it with Add/remove program and norton didn’t work because it couldn’t be found.

Leigh
#279. August 30th, 2008, at 11:56 AM.

I have tried to remove antivirus xp 2008 as advised above, but when I try to delete the files, it says they are already deleted, but the program still runs. HOW do I get this thing off my computer???? Also, I have the “blue screen of death” and when I try to change it by changing my background, it tells me that my system administrator won’t let me. Any help would be wonderful!!! Thanks!

spencerstrips25
#280. August 30th, 2008, at 3:15 PM.

I had to buy a copy of wipe drive and overwrite all of my hard drive and reinstall my operating system. The program now has a self defensive program that prevents it from being overwritten.

Tommot
#281. August 30th, 2008, at 3:17 PM.

I recently had a particular bad version of Antivirus xp 2008. It deleted my system restores so I could not remove it that way. It also took over my browers so when I was searching for a solution they kept getting redirected. You have to click on cached to get to the site. I used spybot to remove most of the virus, then ran malwarebytes to get the rest. Malware would do the job on its own, you don’t need to run spybot, thats what I tried first. I did get control over my browsers, (after running malware) and and after fiddling around with solutions in found on the web, I did get the missing tabs in display properties. However, I still cannot get my screensaver to work. I have tried the solutions on this site, and it stills resets to none. As for killing process that are running in task manager, although I am not a newbie to computers, I do not know what half of them do, so that is out of the question.
So use malwarebytes to get rid of it. You may not have your wallpaper and screensaver, but at least you have control back :)

ME
#282. August 30th, 2008, at 5:13 PM.

entry #276 and #277 could you please be more specific?
i need this gone!!

HELP
#283. August 30th, 2008, at 5:26 PM.

ive been reading this and it wont let me go on any websites like malwarebytes

how do i know which proccesses to end under task manager?

help me please

ricethief
#284. August 31st, 2008, at 4:28 AM.

Had tried everything to remove this nasty thing was able to remove a chunk of it manually but there was even more stuff than what was listed in the instructions here. I finally found a freeware that took care of the everything including the redirection problem. Its called Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware . I think I grabbed it off Cnet since the homepage for it was blocked. Took like 5 minutes and it had found everything the trojan was bound to and took care of it.

ME
#285. August 31st, 2008, at 9:59 AM.

i found the answer!!!
thanks whoever posted this (yahoo answers)

This is how I got rid of Antivirus XP 2008. It is different than the XP Antivirus 2008 most sites refer to.

First you need to stop the program from loading on startup. This is what you do to stop it:

Start, run

Type msconfig

Go to Startup tab

Uncheck lphc35dj0e1an
Uncheck rhc75dj0e1an

Click apply, then ok
Restart computer

Then you need to delete the main files this program uses. Delete the following file:

C:\windows\system32\lphc35dj0e1an.exe

Delete the following folder and all contents:

C:\program files\rhc75dj0e1an

This should remove the program from your system but you probably still have a warning message displayed as your wallpaper in Windows and the virus removed the ability to change the wallpaper or your desktop settings.

To restore ability to change your desktop settings and select a different wallpaper and screen saver do the following:

Start, run

type Gpedit.msc

Navigate to User configuration, Administrative Templates, Control Panel, Display

Right click on Remove Display in Control Panel
Click on Properties and select Disabled

Do the same steps to change the following attributes to disabled:

Hide Desktop Tab
Prevent changing wallpaper
Hide Apperance and Themes tab
Hide Settings tab
Hide Screen Saver tab

You should now be able to use your computer normally and change the wallpaper to something other than the warning message Antivirus XP 2008 set it to.

RD Texas
#286. August 31st, 2008, at 2:51 PM.

These Guys have no HEARTS at all, Hell is waiting for these Scum Bastards that is if I don’t find your sorry asses first.

Subject: [ #CS-08415010] Thank you for contacting Customer Support Center
From:
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:15:04 -0400

Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for contacting Customer Support Center.

We apologize about the problem you are experiencing.
Before proceeding with the support service, requesting you to kindly
bear with us and write back with the following information to locate your
order and address your problem.

1. Product name(with which you have problem), order number: this number
you would have received from us in the email confirmation when the
order was placed.
2. If you do not have any order number, please furnish the following
information
Name:
Address:
State:
Country:
Email Address (Used during the purchase process):
Last Eight Digits of your Credit Card and Type:
Date of Transaction:
Transaction Amount:

Also please add any relevant/important details of the problem you
faced.

Your reply with this requested information is highly appreciated.

Thank you,
Customer Support Center

RD Texas
#287. August 31st, 2008, at 2:56 PM.

Have an of you stopped to wonder WHY Microsoft has not stepped up to help the millions of folks that run their Software with this problem. We all know they think they are the mighty brains of the internet. Come on Bill turn lose of the cure for this sort of B S so we can get on with our Computer driven lives.

Jeff
#288. August 31st, 2008, at 6:05 PM.

I just paid for this XP Anti Virus removal program, I ran a scan and deleted everything that indicated were virus. Nothing changed in my computer. After, I went back to your home page to send this comment, and I read other users comments. I have to agree with them. I got taken. You did not sell me a program as advertised to get rid of my virus. I WANT MY MONEY BACK.

Patrick
#289. September 1st, 2008, at 8:53 AM.

Okay, SO just like all you suckers… im a sucker too. I THINK i downloaded “Antivirus XP 2008″ in a panic to find something to protect my computer after my norton expired.

I’ve tried:
1.add and remove program (didnt work)
2.Looking for the files to delete manualy (didnt work)
3.System Restore (It wont let me restore! The only bolded date is the current one)
4.Safe mode to system restore (didnt work)
5.Safe mode to MANUALLY delete the folders (didnt work)

Can ANY one please email me at pat-ential@hotmail.com if theres any easy way to delete this BS. Because my next action is reboot, and i dont really want to do it.
Goodluck everyone else.

JohnTallSmith
#290. September 2nd, 2008, at 2:24 AM.

Patrick
You probably need to wipe your PC and rebuild from scratch because the virus drops files all over your disk so even if you remove the virus you still have to trawl through your whole disk removing these other files. If you want free antivirus used Avast or AVG they are both good.

John

mel
#291. September 3rd, 2008, at 7:33 AM.

This program is really a pain. I’m working in a company as an admin and some people getting this popup messages only because they where too uncareful when they where surfing on pages. On some machines it was working to remove it (antivirus 2008 was not installed, only the popups you could see all the time), other machines where completely lost. I had to restore Admin rights on some machines where you could not open Taskmanager or Control Panel any more. Someone really should do something against this kind of “Rogue-Software”.

Goodluck

Ray
#292. September 4th, 2008, at 9:59 AM.

Hi folks
Unfortunately my laptop was infected by this antivirus virus, and also rippedoff and paid $80 for it while I was so desperate dealing with the popups. But a few hours later reliazed that something wrong but the transaction was done. I called TD VISA right away, they asked me to wait couple of days until the transaction showing on statement. Called again, VISA security asking me to send email to customer support first asking for refund and wait couple of days, if no response, they will investigate. I did that, and called VISA AGAIN, this time is Resolution Dept, she asked me to call back in 30 days, if not get refund, they would start invesitgate. What the hell is going on with these Cards company, to me, they are no better than the hackers. Any suggestion ?

evelyn
#293. September 4th, 2008, at 10:29 PM.

after an 8 hour battle with this stupid virus i finally got it off my pc.

1. i spent the whole night using Ad-Aware, Superantispyware & AVG, which managed to removed the crucial bit of the virus

2. i continued having the hijack browser peoblem. so i manually removed the virus as per directions given above (as well as few other sites, google it and paste the site on a new tab as clicking on it will just redirect it to some random shitty scam sites)

3. http://www.windowsvistaplace.com/vista/spyware-removal solved my wallpaper problem (altho wallpaper can be changed, but if you right click to properties but were only given 3 tabs instead of the original 5)

4. but I still had the problem of browser hijack whenever I used google search on IE and Firefox (it redirects me to another random site which , and it doesn’t allow me to access sites eg. malwarebytes.org or karspersky av which would help to eliminate the virus entirely)

so this was what i did. i got someone to send me malwarebytes’ anti-malware (malwarebytes.org) thru Skype (or MSN) and installed and ran the program. less than 30 minutes, everything was scanned, the virus which couldn’t be detected thru AS, AVG & Ad-Aware was detected by this malware anti-malware, the anti-malware require me to reboot my comp and my problem was solved.

i hope this helps the hijacked browser problem which most ppl seem to be having even after going thru the whole process of getting rid of the virus in the registry cos I spent the whole night getting really angry because I spent hours after hours reading thru things I even had no idea off because I’m an IT noob.

take note that this malware attacks differently on every comp, so no one comp might experience the same things. some had the BSOD (blue screen of death) but I didn’t, some disabled the task manager but i didn’t experience that, some didn’t have a prob with the hijacked browser but I did.

Subhajit
#294. September 5th, 2008, at 5:39 AM.

Hi
Thanks for all your help on this nightmarish experience. The only thing that seemed to work for me (I’m running Windows XP) was Super Ad Blocker. It’s a 14-day trial version but does the trick.
Tried almost every other software suggested (wouldn’t do a manual removal as I don’t want to mess with registry) including Windows Live OneCare and AdAware which didn’t help.
However I should mention that though SuperAd was finally able to remove all traces of the virus including the blue desktop wallpaper, it could not restore the screensaver and wallpaper tabs when you right-click on desktop and select display properties. Had to install Windows on top of existing version to get those back.

lucky
#295. September 5th, 2008, at 10:12 AM.

YAY!! finally got rid of Antivirus XP 2008!!! So ive been trying for 6 hours solid to try and get rid of this dam thing and firstly be aware that its not the same as XP Antivirus 2008 (slightly different name!) thats where i spent alot of my time going wrong!

I spent hours and hours searching for solutions and downloading hundreds of virus scan programs…but most did only that!! scan and not remove!! then one said it removed it and didnt, i was going out of my mind! Im completely clueless when it comes to these things , ive only learnt about spyware, malwares in the past 6 hours.

The only thing that worked for me is a post on this page by John
#44. June 23rd, 2008, at 1:59 PM. The instructions are simple (even for a newbee like me!) and i was so relived when it actually worked i almost cried! Thanks so much john!! i hope you dont mind but im posting your post again for people cos this virus is a real pain!!!

good luck!

John
#44. June 23rd, 2008, at 1:59 PM.

This is how I got rid of Antivirus XP 2008. It is different than the XP Antivirus 2008 most sites refer to.

First you need to stop the program from loading on startup. This is what you do to stop it:

Start, run

Type msconfig

Go to Startup tab

Uncheck lphc35dj0e1an
Uncheck rhc75dj0e1an

Click apply, then ok
Restart computer

Then you need to delete the main files this program uses. Delete the following files:

C:\windows\system32\lphc35dj0e1an.exe
C:\program files\rhc75dj0e1an\rhc75dj0e1an.exe

This should remove the program from your system but you probably still have a warning message displayed as your wallpaper in Windows and the virus removed the ability to change the wallpaper or your desktop settings.

To restore ability to change your desktop settings and select a different wallpaper and screen saver do the following:

Start, run

type Gpedit.msc

Navigate to User configuration, Administrative Templates, Control Panel, Display

Right click on Remove Display in Control Panel
Click on Properties and select Disabled

Do the same steps to change the following attributes to disabled:

Hide Desktop Tab
Prevent changing wallpaper
Hide Apperance and Themes tab
Hide Settings tab
Hide Screen Saver tab

You should now be able to use your computer normally and change the wallpaper to something other than the warning message Antivirus XP 2008 set it to.

E Thygesen
#296. September 5th, 2008, at 10:15 AM.

I contacted the support address from the purchase order - support@paymentbit.net - and received the following reply:

Dear xxx,
Thank you for contacting Antivirus2008xp Customer Support Center.

Based on the information provided in your letter, you think that Antivirus 2008 is a spyware.

I beg to assure you that this information cannot be proved to be true. The only reason why this information appeared in the Internet is competitive companies’ desire to discredit Antivirus2008xp. We work for our customers and we cannot afford offering dubious or dangerous products. However, our customers have never complained about problems they impute to us. Our top priority is to satisfy our customers.

But if you have malware-related issues please, follow below given instructions to run a special tool that will remove threats from your system.
a. To download removal tool, please click the link below:
http://files.virussw.com/qrt.zip> click here
or copy and paste the following address in your browser:
http://files.virussw.com/qrt.zip
b. The window opens asking what you would like to do with the file: ‘Run’, ‘Save’ or ‘Cancel’. Click “Save”, choose “Desktop” as a destination folder and click “Save”.
*Go to the desktop and double click on the icon with qrt.zip (looks like a file folder with a zipper)
c. Then click “Extract all file” to the left of the screen, you will then get an extraction wizard. Click Next, then next again, and Finish.
d. Another window will appear, Double click on QRT Module, this will start scanning your computer for malware.
*Once the scan is complete, click the “Remove all” button.

Thank you for patience and cooperation

Regards,
Lena,
Antivirus2008xp Customer Support Center

Avalanche5150
#297. September 5th, 2008, at 10:39 AM.

Just download “Malwarebyte’s Anti-malware” and do a full sweep. There is a free version and a $24.99 version and they both work.
Or just google “Rapidshare+Malwarebyte’s” and download the full version for free.
It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to remove this piece of B.S. from an infected computer.
RAVE ON !!!!!!!!!!

ryan
#298. September 5th, 2008, at 9:03 PM.

after two long days of tirelessly pounding keys and checking files i managed to rid myself of this nuisance

roy`
#299. September 6th, 2008, at 7:59 AM.

Hey everyone,
I have purchased Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 and its capable of removing the virus Antivirus2008xp in a matter of few seconds. If you guys not willing to buy a license key, u could try the trial version for 30 days.

leonard cristales
#300. September 6th, 2008, at 10:22 AM.

it worked for me

Bill
#301. September 7th, 2008, at 5:27 PM.

I downloaded AVAST (virus recovery database) which is 100% free and after letting it scan my laptop, it showed me where the xp trojan/virus was and I was surprised at the places it could hide.
The first bit was in my Documents, then another in the Sound Management System, also in System32.

This great program found it in all it’s places and asked me first if I wanted to delete it…I said Yes every time it found this horrible stuff. Hey - it’s all gone now …Recommended Highly!!!!!

Mai
#302. September 7th, 2008, at 9:19 PM.

IF ANYONE IS DOING A LAWSUIT.. I HAVE SOME INFO!

I did a whois on http://www.anti-spyware5.com/, and is some information:
Anti-spyware5.com was registered to the company that took the payment off the creditcard my dad gave for the payment! if you’ve made payment, call your creditcard company right away! Cancel and REPORT!

ask for as much information about whoever took that payment!

I also did a google search on the phone number that was used to register that site:

That program was illegally stolen from some guy named Michael Evans..
and he also did a whois … his link:
http://www.robomod.net/pipermail/comp-software-shareware-authors/2005-April/000509.html

this is my whois search done Sept 07.08 9:19pm EST.

the whois info:

============================================================
Registration Service Provided By: ESTDOMAINS INC
Contact: +1.3027224217
Website: http://www.estdomains.com

Domain Name: ANTI-SPYWARE5.COM

Registrant:
OOO Netservice
Oleg Balashev ()
1ya ul. Tekstil’shikov 12/9
Moscow
null,109382
RU
Tel. +7.9112526460

Creation Date: 23-Jun-2008
Expiration Date: 23-Jun-2009

Domain servers in listed order:
ns2.software-mall.com
ns1.software-mall.com

Administrative Contact:
OOO Netservice
Oleg Balashev ()
1ya ul. Tekstil’shikov 12/9
Moscow
null,109382
RU
Tel. +7.9112526460

Technical Contact:
OOO Netservice
Oleg Balashev ()
1ya ul. Tekstil’shikov 12/9
Moscow
null,109382
RU
Tel. +7.9112526460

Billing Contact:
OOO Netservice
Oleg Balashev ()
1ya ul. Tekstil’shikov 12/9
Moscow
null,109382
RU
Tel. +7.9112526460

Status:ACTIVE

The data in this whois database is provided to you for information purposes only,
that is, to assist you in obtaining information about or related
to a domain name registration record. We make this information available “as is”,
and do not guarantee its accuracy. By submitting a whois query, you agree that you will
use this data only for lawful purposes and that, under no circumstances will you use this data to:
(1) enable high volume, automated, electronic processes that stress
or load this whois database system providing you this information; or
(2) allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission of mass unsolicited,
commercial advertising or solicitations via direct mail, electronic mail, or by telephone.
The compilation, repackaging, dissemination or other use of this data is expressly prohibited without
prior written consent from us. The Registrar of record is ESTDOMAINS Inc.
We reserve the right to modify these terms at any time.
By submitting this query, you agree to abide by these terms.
======================================================

Mai
#303. September 7th, 2008, at 9:22 PM.

also.. if you’re having problems erasing files that are linked to ANTIVIRUS2008 because they are locked/denied… download the freeware:
Unlocker. It works for ANY file you want to erase forcibly.

Voodoobones
#304. September 9th, 2008, at 7:14 PM.

Well, I followed the instructions and now I get “Winlogon.exe This Application has failed to start because SHLWAPI.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.”

The problem is that now I can’t even log on to my laptop. The system is hosed and now I have to do a reinstall. The bastards that built this virus need to be hung by the buddies until they drop off!

Derrick
#305. September 10th, 2008, at 12:32 AM.

PROBLEM SOLVED!If your like me, you have some basic computer knowledge and read through all of the threads to find out how to combat this hijacking & extortion attempt. The malware would not let me get onto the internet and I had to do the research from the laptop. I could not locate the registry files that I was reading about on these threads and others to delete. I was using Avast, and I had an unused copy of Webroot Spysweeper w/ Antivirus which I installed and it did absolutely nothing. I tried to call support and was on hold for over an hour. I hung up and called Symantec / Norton support and waited less than 2 minutes. They said for $99 they would guarantee the removal of Antivirus xp 2008. Grudgingly, I gave them the dough, but true to their word the tech person accessed my computer remotely and worked for two hours and now (so far) my computer works better than it did 13 hours ago when this mess started. I was impressed enough to go out and buy Norton 360. Hope this helps, the problem with the advice given previously is that you cannot use the internet to download these miracle cures when the malware has hijacked your internet, therefore it must be done manually. If you do it manually yourself, you better know a whole lot more than I know or risk an even worse fate.

Discount Code
#306. September 10th, 2008, at 4:38 AM.

Hi, I managed to removed the Antispyware XP 2008. Thank you very much for your guidance and help. Now the popups are not coming and its fine.
But there seems to be problem that my internet is not working. ie, the connection is showing as established. But the browsers are not able to open the pages. Any thoughts please.

Voodoobones
#307. September 10th, 2008, at 1:06 PM.

Last night I was able to use the recovery disk to get to a cmd. I was able to fix the files I messed up and can now get into safemode. I still have this stupid virus/malware thing though.
I never installed it so I don’t have the full problem but just the stuff it installed on its own has messed up my laptop to the point that I am just going to backup what I can and wipe out the computer.

your mom
#308. September 10th, 2008, at 9:45 PM.

I have to say thanks to the people who said to go to www.malwarebytes.org
The only thing was I downloaded it onto a disc at work and when I got home the PC was so messed up it said the disc was blank and of course the browser was so messed up it would not let me go to malwarebytes website. The only way around this I found was to go directly to cnet.com, this works with firefox only, as explore would not even open. Once at cnet go to downloads and search for malwarebytes. Download it and you should be all set. Thanks again…

Annie
#309. September 11th, 2008, at 3:27 AM.

You can’t fight this virus manually:

a) it disables your task manager and you can’t turn it back on
b) it starts overwrites system information so that it starts itself up everytime window starts–you can’t can’t turn it off
c) system restore does not scroll to earlier dates
d) file names are different with each infection so you there are no standard manual fix
e) it changes you registry data and you can’t change it back

I’ve tried a few antivirus softwares and almost gave up on my computer–was about to delete and reboot everything to get rid of it. But I read on here about Malwarebytes, and it works!http://www.malwarebytes.org/
It’s entirely free to try and lightweight. You can just use it to get rid of the virus and not purchase the software.

Saved my life! Now I’m happy and will beware of all products, even if it has Microsoft logo on it.

boco77
#310. September 11th, 2008, at 5:06 AM.

I got this stupid virus last evening when I come back from work. I dont know how I got it. It had that message saying i got 50 million viruses and trojans and blocked access to my control panel and anything in start menu. I couldnt log in without going in safe mode first either, as it would just hang on the welcome screen.

The problem is I followed the advice of downloading Malwarebytes, I installed it and it found it and removed it. I could use the task manager and everything else fine again. It got rid of it for a while.

However I left the comp on overnight to have it downloading stuff and before going to work today switched on the screen and lo and behold its back again. Same thing as before. I thought Malwarebytes removes it? It found all the infected files first time and I put them in the quarantine (but didnt remove them from the quarantine is that why?)

Discount Code
#311. September 11th, 2008, at 5:44 AM.

Sorry, just an update of my post yesterday. The problem with internet was from the network provider - Virgin Media.. The problem has been reported with Virgin Media and I am waiting for an engineer to come in tomorrow.

Thank you very much all buddies. Your comments saved me from re-formatting my PC…. And Thanks to Google as well to help me to find you guys.. :)

James
#312. September 11th, 2008, at 3:28 PM.

ALSO; to restore your display properties tabs, try this.

Regedit to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

If there is a DWoRD Value such “NoDispScrSavPage” with a data value of 1 this will disable the screen saver tab. Change the value to 0 or delete it to
see the tab again.
i see that you have the screensaver tab but see if there is anything else that looks like it is for the other tabs

You may see two things, put values BOTH to 0.

Bernie
#313. September 12th, 2008, at 1:08 AM.

Hey Guys,
You have all downloaded this virus into your computers. All of you even if you are on Vista or XP have auto downloads. If you have flagged this program to download automatically without you seeing what is been downloaded it will download antivirus 2008 and it will download directly into your program files and attack your operating files……..Solution? Full tower format!!! sorry..if you picked it up quickly you may do system restore but if it is left for more than 24hrs system restore does not work……..Always check your automatic updates-yellow shield and click custom before install and it will tell you what is waiting to be installed. Good luck…….bibi

V.Aleinikov
#314. September 12th, 2008, at 5:52 AM.

I’ve done it !!!! :)
thank you John (44)

Jamez
#315. September 12th, 2008, at 9:27 AM.

Yeah, every time I start up my comp… i get a scan going on and on about i got like 2,000 viruses. Then every 20 minutes or so i get a pop-up saying that i don’t have this. I hit”continue unprotected” and it pops something else up giving me a deal on a 34.95 software. How can I get this to stop? If you got any comments, pm me on this or e-mail me at irokandusok@yahoo.com

Thanks,
Jamez

Ron
#316. September 12th, 2008, at 8:05 PM.

This is all fine and dandy but the Antivirus 2008 folks have wised up. The Control Panel and Run options are now missing from the Start Menu. Also, Task Manager and Regedit have been disabled by the “Administrator”. I haven’t tried the command prompt, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was disabled as well.

Bob
#317. September 14th, 2008, at 1:04 AM.

Okay I had this virus and dont get spyhunter. It turned out to be spyware. All you have to do is disable your system restore and do a spy sweep. To do this just:
1. Go to contol panel
2. Click on peformance and matienence
3. Click on system
4. Then click the tab system restore
5. Then check the “turn off system restore” box
6. Then do a spy sweep
7. Reboot
8. It is now okay to turn your system restore back on
Getting to the system restore options may be a little different for everybody.
Good Luck, :)
Bob

Pupa
#318. September 15th, 2008, at 6:43 AM.

There are lots of bullshits on internet, how remove this officious Antivirus 2008 virus… but the truth is: they DON”T work!!!! I tried everything, all tools were recommended, but NO one of them worked…. (Spyware Doctor was worst, made computer slower and didn’t detect anything!)

Antivirus 2008 isn’t so easy to find, It’s hide itself under normal windows files and processes names!!!!

But only one program which helped so much was a-squared HiJackFree.

In ActiveX tab I found these horrible Rogue viruses, they were marked red and I just unistalled it (but you must be careful, not to delete Windows components, first make google search before deleting something…)
a-squared HiJackFree is wonderful tool!!!!

Good luck for all! :-)
Pupa from Germany

benjamin
#319. September 15th, 2008, at 8:26 PM.

I went on ragezone to get some maplkestory private servers and my computer freezez i restart it and its changed my wallpaper and desabled everything i cant deleat things im just gonna reset windows get rid of absolutely everything thers nothing important on there except full sony vegas pro 8.0 so im kinda fine its ok RESET AWAY =]

BEnnnnn

Peter
#320. September 16th, 2008, at 12:22 AM.

THREE cheers for #44…John…

Very simple fix. NO need to download any new anti-spyware.

Follow his instruction for the removal of the infected files, then simply restore your PC’s background.

I’d already gone into the Run > msconfig and unticked the relative files, but good to know where he found the remaining files.

Pays to know what programs are in your Start-Up when you first start you PC, and then know what programs you’ve installed along the way. Then if anything else is there that shouldn’t be, you know straight away that something’s amiss.

Peter
#321. September 16th, 2008, at 1:27 AM.

Also note that you will need to go into Start menu > Programs, and delete the links there too.

Mine seems OK now. Was having some issues with opening new pages, but seems good now.

j
#322. September 16th, 2008, at 9:09 PM.

if you do any removals or edits to system 32 make sure the .dll isnt running. also boot into safemode. if you run sophos, kaspersky, or webroot antivirus and antispyware you will be ok from this threat.

MS
#323. September 18th, 2008, at 5:01 PM.

This is how I got rid of it on my friend’s laptop:

1. Revo Uninstaller (http://www.revouninstaller.com/), a powerful Program Uninstaller that allows you to remove any offending programs from your computer and registry (yes, it is a freeware). I found this on another forum.

2. Malwarebytesnti-Malware (http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php) as mentioned above in many posts above and on several guides on how to remove this nasty malware.

After using both, we ran a real antivirus program. It has been a month and no issues have cropped up.

Benke Bus
#324. September 19th, 2008, at 3:12 PM.

Howdie.
Just wanna tell you that antivirus2008 has mutated and now it’s even more dificult to remove.
The new name is: MS antivirus 2009 and the easest way i’ve found out to remove it is to use a combination of McAfee and malewarebytes.
Malwraebytes it´s a freeware ans could easely be found on the net
Good Luck

Derek
#325. September 19th, 2008, at 8:31 PM.

I’ve deleted most of it. However, there is one thing that changes my desktop when I start up that still remains. I’ve probably destroyed enough of it to make it unknown to most other programs. Damnit!

DougW
#326. September 19th, 2008, at 10:11 PM.

Hello all - not sure if this will help you, but here is my experience. My aunt was downloading MP3s, and came across one that reported that she must install a specific MP3 codec… so she did, and XP Antivirus 2008 started installing… soon after the overwhelming pop-ups began… she was distraught… Called me, and I began researching… I am suprised that so many have been affected, and a quick and decisive solution has not been offered by Microsoft, and the retail anti-virus industry!! This program is hell un-leashed!! I installed Malwarebytes, as per posts in this forum… ran the scan, and 300+ infections were fond. I clicked on “Show Items”, and the window flashed for a second and closed… ran the scan again… same thing. I then moved on to trying a previous Restore Point in Windows… there were NONE. So… I went to msconfig, and disabled anything that looked suspecious (some items would not allow disable)… one that did was “sav”. My aunt recognized this program, and told me that she had read about it, and had tried to delete it from Program Files, but it would not let her. I rebooted, navigated to Program Files (through all of the pop-ups) and deleted the “sav” program and folder ( I think removing it via msconfig, allowed me to delet it… not running at start-up). I noticed a reduction in pop-ups at this point, but still had a lot of Windows Security warning pop-ups… I kept closing those while I ran a Malwarebytes scan again… Found infections. This time, when I clicked on “Show Items”. I held the click_down (in programming, there are 2 events in a mouse-click, down_click, and up_click). By doing this I was able to hold the “Show Items” window in place, and move the mouse over to the “Remove Infections” button, for the up_click. Malwarebytes was able to remove all but a few of the infections. I then rebooted , and ran it again… no infections found. The only pop-ups I was getting at this point was Windows Security messages about Antivirus protection. I updated Norton Antivirus, and it required a repair… ran that.. rebooted. Norton repoted that it was up-to-date and running, but I was still getting those Windows security warnings… So I set the Windows Security Antivirus option to “I have my on AV, and will monitor it myself”. That ened the Windows Security warnings… rebooted again, and the system seems stable. I advised my aunt to monitor the system, as this is a NASTY program, and it may have the abilty to re-initialize itself. Hope this helps anybody out there that has encountered this program from HELL!! And to Microsoft and the Antivirus industry… GET OFF YOUR DUFFS AND ELIMINATE THIS PROBLEM NOW!! And to Microsoft specifically… PLEASE STOP TRYING TO COPY AND TAKE OVER EVERY APP… YOU HAVE THE BASE, REFINE IT, MAKE IT FASTER, SMALLER, AND CHEAPER!! Maybe then, you will have time to make it SECURE!!

Johnny
#327. September 21st, 2008, at 10:39 PM.

Hi folks

I let this virus onto my computer but it was gone the same day … I got rid of just by using Google to answer questions.

a) Delete EP 2008 virus from programs in the control panel

Yes that does not stop it tho, … it still starts up scanning.

b) Clear off any work and stop the scanner

c) Click Start then Run

d) Type in msgconfig

e) hit OK in the box

f) you will see Startup in the next box … click

and you get the startup menu items u have …. all of which u can delete if you are not sure which are the XP virus’s.

There should be 2 of them all lower case letters.

I deleted everything from Startup and the XP virus was gone like a Phantom in the night !

Good Luck.

Ron Jerryman
#328. September 23rd, 2008, at 10:18 PM.

Now, at work I recently got this XP Antivirus virus on my Vista work computer when I hit a website from google. The computer had Norton installed and updated, but it did nothing.

At home I had Cyberdefender installed on an XP machine, and paid for the upgrade since I liked it. At work I downloaded the free version of cyberdefender and installed it, and it took care of the XP Antivirus one my work computer when I ran a scan.

Hope this helps

Jerry C
#329. September 24th, 2008, at 8:01 AM.

I also installed Malware from www.malwarebytes.com.

It worked like a charm!!! In fact, it was the only thing that worked for me. And it’s FREE!

JC

Pat
#330. September 24th, 2008, at 2:45 PM.

I had to contact tech support since i had a dell computer and it took her an hour to get rid of that trojan. I did not pay money for it but this xp 1008 looks like it is official from microsoft and it downloaded and caused a lot of problems. get rid of it ASAP

Johnny Gemba
#331. September 25th, 2008, at 12:48 AM.

I downloaded the trial version of SUPERADBLOCKER and ran a scan. After an hour and a half I had nearly 400 threats on my C drive. I clicked to remove all and the virus was gone.

David Stone
#332. September 26th, 2008, at 6:06 PM.

Now that I have finished laughing about the fact that some of you actually PAID the same people who put a virus on your computer to fix it…lol… Take it from someone who has built well over 100 windows machines and seen every problem in the book many times over.

Reformat your drive and reisntall after backing up data. Creat a C partition 12 gig in size for windows, and make the rest a D partition. In the future keep all data on D so the next time windows takes a dump (and it always does take a dump eventually), you can just reformat and reinstall windows without having to move data. It should take less than 45 minutes to do this, and you computer will run like a new machine again. Once a computer gets to the state your computers are in, it will never really run right again without reinstalling. Windows collects “junk” over time anyway, and think of what I am telling you as an “oil change & tune-up”.

In the future, if you see some stupid popup about viruses or installing ANYTHING come up that isn’t FOR SURE LEGIT….DON’T CLICK ANY PART OF THE POPUP. NOT EVEN THE “X” or “CLOSE”, it will infect you. Hit control-alt-delete, and SHUT DOWN your browser.

If you get tired of this nonsense, do what I did, and buy a mac. My macs have went years without antivirus, and have no viruses, popups, malware, or any other stupid “PC-like issues”. They cost a bit more but are worth it.

Sara
#333. October 1st, 2008, at 10:22 PM.

I got this virus on my computer, and deleted it. When I restarted my computer,all hell broke loose. The computer just keeps restarting. I can hit f8 and pull that up, but the safe mode and other options do not work. now it is coming up with a blue screen that tells me about disabling bios memory options such as Cashing or shadowing. The error code says Beep.sys ie_fault_in_nonpager_area.
I am not sure what to do. I do not have a recovery disk.

Terry the techie
#334. October 3rd, 2008, at 1:51 PM.

I had to set the bios to default settings to get the computer to boot up after it gave me the blue screen with the same thing Sara has. That worked but now have to tackle the antivirus 2008 thing. Probably will back up everything and format hard drive then re-install OS. Once something like this infects the computer you are better off starting from scratch.

jobob
#335. October 4th, 2008, at 12:32 PM.

Ok worked on laptop all night kept getting a blue screen and nothing more no matter what I tired until:

1. Download Bitdefender 2009 rescue Cd Linuix platform
2. Burn Iso on Cd
3. Change pc to boot from Cd and insert cd
4. run virus scan

Killed xp antivirus 2009 running another scan now that laptop up just as a double dose.

Chris
#336. October 15th, 2008, at 4:36 PM.

How do i get rid of all these virus`s? Do i get a new computer? What is the best computer for me and what do i do to get rid of these birus`s?!

Zach
#337. October 16th, 2008, at 12:44 AM.

LISTEN….JUST DOWNLOAD MALWAREBYTES ANTI-MALWARE. IT’S FREE AND IT WORKS. IT IS FREE AND REMOVES THIS PERFECTLY. I HAVE PEER GUARDIAN 2 BUT SOMETIMES I HAVE TO ALLOW HTTP SO THIS NASTY BASTARD GETS THROUGH. I JUST INSTALL IT THEN DELETE IT. DOWNLOAD THIS. IT WORKS WONDERS.

Zach
#338. October 16th, 2008, at 12:45 AM.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO REFORMAT ANYTHING. I THOUGHT ABOUT THAT AND WAS ABOUT TO BUT THEN FOUND THIS.

Steve
#339. October 17th, 2008, at 11:33 AM.

I fix this problem and Antivirus 2009 all of the time with Combofix. Do a google search for it. I download it from bleepingcomputer.com. It is free and always works for me. Works in Vista, too.

Steve
#340. October 17th, 2008, at 11:34 AM.

Woops! I forgot to mention that you sometimes need to rename combofix to something else. I usually rename it to comb.exe. Antivirus 2009 knows about combofix and will prevent it from running if you don’t rename it.

Elena
#341. October 18th, 2008, at 2:28 PM.

How I removed the Antivirus 2009
I panicked and downloaded this plague - I was thinking if it were a fake, Microsoft could have stopped it easily. I am just a regular user and followed some instructions on these site and from another site but I have a laptop and some didn’t work as planned: you may find this incoherent, but so were my actions. By the way, I did two free scans, one with McCafee and one with Norton and only Norton found the virus - McCaffee DID NOT FIND THE BLARING THING. It found a Worm lost in a file from 7 years ago. Norton found both. I hate Kasperky - it gave me sthe runouround and wasted my time without getting a free scan.
Safe mode didn’t work for me but restore never worked for me in the past - with my Dell laptop XP I never get any restore points for some reason, although I set them up
I deleted a file from Windows/Prefetch\ AV2009.EXE-0OD4b24C.pf
I did a search on *phc*.* and ‘rhc (as part of a file name) and erased what I found, which was that I completely erased an entire directory in the driver cache, with dozens of files called “cab driver”(i386?) because I couldn’t find the actual file. panic again, the ‘Thing 1′ acted horrifyingly and I thought I was on a time bomb towards the blue screen anyway.
One search brought me a file called ’scui.pf’ but the directory gave me a filed called just ’scui.’ in System 32 directory - I have no idea if this was necessary. I erased it. Nothing really changed except that I had no blue screen yet.
But what really took the antivirus folder out and shut down the popping action was:
Alt Ctrl Del - go to Processes Tap, find the Antivirus file and press End Processes. Then I could go to the program folder and erase the damn folder with the name Antivirus2009.
Guess what: I actually had an older icon from this Antivirus they yellow one with the exclamation sign, and always worked in the background, popping up often and slowing me down greatly. I truly thought it was M.S. Windows and I ignored it. So with AV 2009, I had 2 icons now. Both disappeared after I erased this directory and I can’t believe how fast is my computer now.
Lesson One: don’t panick. Lesson Two: End Processes.

urielongo
#342. October 18th, 2008, at 6:52 PM.

gracias por la ayuda no lo podia creer al otro dia que lo baje fue no se, fue increible gracias

John C
#343. October 23rd, 2008, at 10:30 AM.

Hi guys,

Can somebody please inform me on what steps to take in order to dispute the charge to my credit card company?

I placed the order online and I never save the ORDER NO# or CODE, since I believed it wouldve been emailed to me and it never was!!

Therefore the only proof of purchase will be on my credit card statement.

Any suggestions ??

Thanks!
John

needhelpfast
#344. November 8th, 2008, at 12:25 PM.

ok i am going to start off saying do not donload spyhunter it makes you buy it to remove programs if you want to buy it thats great but i dont it.i want windows xp antispyware 2009 or 2008 off my computer now i cant barley use te internet without it saying i am infected i cant take it anymore and i dont wanna pay dell to fix it. when i try to delete it , it installs itself ferther and it says access denied but it is my computer buying a computer is a scam pop ups are all over the place i am so mad i wanna brake my computer and i cant get rid of it i want it off my computer but i dont wanna dowload somthing or pay for it and the thing is i did not even download it it download itself i hate it i think that dell sends it to ur computer so you have to spend money on it to fix it any hel will greatly help. thanks

Pete
#345. November 9th, 2008, at 1:18 PM.

I run XP Home edition & protect my system with Avast 4.8 home AV & Stopzilla. Avast is a free download but you will have to pay for Stopzilla, which is not overly expensive. XP2008 has tried on several occasions to install on my system but Stopzilla just stops XP2008 in its tracks & its well worth the money to be free of parasitic vermin like xp2008/9.

Steve
#346. November 15th, 2008, at 2:36 PM.

Avast 4.8 in my opinion is by far the best product. It is also 100% free. If you have this virus, or any other virus, you can do a boot scan. It scans all files prior to boot so that no programs are running, the only way to delete a program. It finds the viruses, and prints out the registry value of the virus, a nice way to manually check the registry in case the delete option was unsuccessful. It is what I use to get rid of this pest. I am an IT guy, this virus is one of the most common ones right now.

Richie UK
#347. November 17th, 2008, at 9:49 AM.

I regularly remove XPAntiVirus 2008/9 from users’ computers. To re-iterate, the following products will remove it:

Super AntiSpyware Free Edition
Malwarebytes Anti- Malware

If you infection is bad and task manager is greyed out, drives have disappeared from My Computer etc, then download Combofix. As mentioned in a previous post rename the file before running it as XPAntiVirus 2009 will stop it running.

You can buy Kaspersky AV 2009 for about £9 ($15) online. I have tried and tested dozens of AV products in the past and found this to be the best for virus and spyware detection. KAV will stop XPAntivirus installing in the first place!

ebi
#348. November 20th, 2008, at 11:00 PM.

This is for WILDMAN for comment #196.

Thanks a lot, Man. Your solution fixed my desktop problem which I was having for several weeks now after removing the Antivirus2008 malware. Apparently the virus hijacks the desktop settings and this was the only solution that worked (not running gpedit.msc, when you have XP Home Edition).

RAMKUMAR
#349. December 1st, 2008, at 5:07 AM.

Dear sir
i purchased xp antivirus 2008 through online from month of june 08, so far it not activated due file missing, please help me to resolve this,

screen showns my missing file name is xpa.exe.tmp

i request you to solve it ASAP
otherwise i will surrender the s/w and repay the amount

CloneTrix
#350. December 2nd, 2008, at 7:08 PM.

Hi guys,
Don do anything wrong! Dis is not a antivirus.This is a addmorevirus program.Fuk Dem Oll! Do not waste ur earned money to purchase dis fukin shit.If u.Think u are a Fool

ohmystars80
#351. December 6th, 2008, at 1:43 PM.

Over the years I have battled several viruses and used many free anti-virus, trojan and malware programs. I got tired of it, and worked with my boss and we got several free versions, then installed them on a fresh system and infected them. The one that found all of them on a scan or found and eliminated them we bought the upgrade.

It was Cyberdefender. The free version is a scanner that will clean the trojans and spyware, but will only do viruses with the paid version. Look eveyone has to make money and they are a NASDAQ company so we had no problem paying for good software.

Well, sure enough, a couple of weeks ago we got hit with XP antivirus 2008, and first we saw Cyberdefender raise the alarm when it started trying to add items to the start-up menu which were blocked and then Cybderdefender started cleaning it off the system.

It got everything but after the reboot, the browser had to have some plug-ins reinstalled but otherwise Cybderdefender saved us from the XP Antivirus 2008 attack.

Another thing, it is best to have your anti-virus software installed before you get a virus. We have encountered viruses that don’t let you install anti-virus programs after infection - virtumondo virus does this.

Hunter
#352. December 8th, 2008, at 6:28 PM.

its funny to see everyone complaining about how stupid the makers of this program are…. but who’s got a pocket full of money and is sitting back laughing?……. the makers.

Be smart when using computers….
Linux FTW!!!

David
#353. December 11th, 2008, at 12:51 AM.

This itself is a scam. This is how to remove it.
download malwarebyte’s antimalware program (FREE) at http://www.malwarebytes.org. Once downloaded restart your computer but push f8 to enter in to xp or vista repair mode. choose start in safe mode without networking. once logged in (your screen will look funny but no worries, just default minimal settings in safe mode) open and install the malware byte. once installed run it (don’t update ..yet). once it detects the various trojans, etc (mine caught about 5) and deletes them, logout and restart windows again normally. Open malwarebytes again and this time up date and run a scan again.
I suggest following up with a second program from lavasoft, adaware.
Good Luck!

M Ellerton
#354. December 14th, 2008, at 9:13 PM.

Hi folks

Well this is one for the books. Yes my clients have been hit with this and it has been devastating for them. As some will now know you will not get the Antivirus they talk about only the cruddy programs which I believe may actuality steal your identity. My advice is to uninstall any of the programs you have downloaded from them and run a full scan on your system to remove any of their files. I would also recommended that you change any passwords and make sure your credit card is not being fleeced. Whilst others have mentioned a number of programs to help remove this spyware I have personally used Spy Hunter 3 from Enigma Software. The cost of this program is well worth it.

Neil
#355. December 24th, 2008, at 4:21 AM.

This Spyware 2008 was a pain in the a$$. Thanks to those who recommended Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. I was one step away from reformatting my hard drive but decided to give Malwarebytes’ a try and it worked. As mentioned by many users before, update and scan several times to make sure all the viruses are caught. Good luck.

donald jr
#356. December 27th, 2008, at 9:59 PM.

hey everyone. peace be unto you. Katie(comment #39)has the best solution to this mess. Go to www.malwarebytes.org . Download the free-ware version and scan your hard drive. (took 40 min.) When done , you may be amazed at the amount of crap it found. Hit DELETE and your troubles are gone! I did not pay for the “antivirus 2008″, it installed itself from an audio download off Limewire(my guess). It caused me a LOT of grief, and I’d be surprized if it didn’t seriously damage it’s creators Karma. One more thing… I have Norton installed, and it told me right away something was up, but… it couldn’t do anything but warn me. Very grateful for the help. peace out

PrettyWiLLi
#357. January 3rd, 2009, at 9:45 PM.

Like most of you this horrible thing also downloaded itself onto my gateway laptop. I tried everything from manually removing it, to contemplating bashing it against the wall, to closing my eyes crossing my fingers and praying it was gone. Last resort was the malwarebytes and while it scanned and found the problem when it said to remove it and restart my comp has refused to restart. It just keeping going from the windows logo to the F8 start up and even when choosing safe mode or start up normally it goes back to the windows logo back to the F8 screen. I’m going insane, can anyone please help because getting a new pc is not an option and I’m not savy enough to go through starting from scratch on my own. Any advice would be appreciated I’m getting desperate!

Jg
#358. January 5th, 2009, at 11:40 AM.

I Use Windows Defender!

Daichi
#359. January 6th, 2009, at 4:45 PM.

I don’t have the XP antivirus problem but i have a spools.exe problem.

Alex
#360. January 18th, 2009, at 1:21 PM.

I still can’t believe that so many people fall for stuff like this. AND PAY BIG MONEY!!!
I feel bad don’t get me wrong, it is absolutely malicious but don’t warning bells go off in your head people when suddenly a program starts on your machine then asks you to pay $$$. It takes very little effort for people to tap your ports and install programs on your system, but it seems to take less effort for you to jump and pay them (especially when your anti-virus that you already have and have paid for doesn’t find problems).

The only way to stop these scammers is to not pay them!! If they don’t get what they want, its not worth their time.
Knowledge is Power!! Read up on stuff people!! especially before you pay $$.

Holly Short
#361. January 18th, 2009, at 4:34 PM.

Thanks you, this article is very helpful. I was almost tricked, but a good tip for recognizing viruses is bad grammar/spelling. If a message pops up with something like, “Remove this programs k” then it is probably not a professional program! (this is just something I noticed, but I don’t know if this holds true for everything)

dave
#362. February 11th, 2009, at 8:37 PM.

I say dos the server and teach these lamers to stop infecting good users its nothing more than cyber terrorizem and should be attacked as it is full bore these people need to be taken off the web along with there dutch hosting :)

Brittany
#363. February 21st, 2009, at 2:25 AM.

** I found a solution**

I’ve been working on this for a week and I finally fixed the problem
First I bought Norton 360 (didnt take the problem away)
and I tried all these crazy codes going to Run and typing everything mentioned above. Non of that crap worked for me, just made me more fustrated! I called the Geeksquad they wanted $198 to fix the problem. forget that mess!
So what happened to me was the task manager was disabled, the run programs came back with error messages the safe mode disabled. I almost gave up then I tried 1 other website that saved my sanity,

www.spyware-techie.com/xpantivirus-removal-guide

just follow the instructions on the site pasted below. seriously it took my computer less than 10 mins and It was gone, (hope this helps others from pulling your hair out) :)

XPAntivirus Automatic Removal Instructions
This automatic removal method is for non-techie computer users. If you’re too lazy to learn about spyware removal or how to access sensitive files in your computer, then this is the method for you.
Before you start: Print or bookmark these instructions because you’ll have to reboot into Safe Mode. Also back up your computer in case you make a mistake.

Download and save SmitFraudFix to your desktop.
Restart your computer in Safe Mode (how to do safe mode). Once the
desktop appears, double click on the SmitfraudFix.exe on your desktop.
After the credits screen, you’ll see a menu. Select the option number 2, which is ‘Clean (safe mode recommended)and then
press Enter to delete infect files.
SmitFraudFix will begin cleaning your computer and take a series of cleanup processes. When the process is over, it will automatically begin the Disk Cleanup program.
Once the Disk Cleanup program is complete, you will be prompted with the message ‘Registry cleaning - Do you want to clean the registryAnswer Y (Yes) and hit Enter. Reboot your computer.
SmitFraudFix will now check if wininet.dll is infected. SmitFraudFix will ask you whether to replace the infected file (if there’s any) ‘Replace infected
file?nswer by typing Y (Yes) and hit Enter.
Reboot your computer to complete the cleaning process.
After reboot, a Notepad screen may appear containing a log of all the files
removed from your computer. If it doesn’t appear, a file will be created called
rapport.txt in the root of your drive, (Local Disk C:).
Restart your computer in Safe Mode (how to do safe mode).
Go to C:\Windows\Temp, click Edit, click Select All, press DELETE, and then
click Yes to confirm that you want all the items to go to the Recycle Bin.
Go to C:\Documents and Settings\[LISTED USER]\Local Settings\Temp, click Edit, click Select All, press DELETE, and then click Yes to confirm that
you want all the items to go to the Recycle Bin.
Reboot your computer back to normal mode. Go to Windows Update and download all critical updates.